“Apple Inc. is greatly speeding up market expansion in China by opening five new stores in roughly five weeks,” Xinhua reports. “‘We are opening five new stores before the Chinese New Year this year. Four of the stores are in brand new cities for us,’ Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.”
“The first of the five was in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, last Saturday. West Lake Apple Store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, near Shanghai, is scheduled to open on January 24,” Xinhua reports. “The Spring Festival, or the Chinese lunar New Year, falls on February 19 this year. It is regarded as the most vibrant shopping season for 1.3 billion Chinese people.”
Xinhua reports, “The new stores will bring the number in China to 20, a great leap since the first store opened its doors in Beijing in 2008.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake. – David Goldstein, Channel Marketing Corp. President, remarking on the opening of Apple Retail Stores, May 21, 2001
Great Take.
I think Apple should be a bit more cautious when threading inside China. Remember how their national TV station whack the iPhone on air claiming the iPhone is not secure and is open to malicious attacks? This is certainly politics and not business and that’s how they will arm twist anyone to bend to their wishes. Still don’t think so? Then look closer to what they are now doing to Google and Microsoft.
Yeah, but now that iOS is secure the Chinese (and other governments) are bitchin’ because they can’t get in. It will always be something.
Go, Angela and Apple!
Smart. They can use the Yuan/Renminbi they earn in the Apple Stores to pay their Chinese-based suppliers … No currency exchange hassles, and no “repatriation” taxes in the US.