“Apple may be preparing to launch its first Austrian store on Vienna’s Kärntnerstrasse, home to a high-traffic shopping district, a report claimed on Wednesday,” Roger Fingas reports for AppleInsider.
“If it goes through, the shop should occupy a three-floor space previously home to clothing retailer Esprit, Der Standard said on Wednesday, quoting sources in real estate broker circles,” Fingas reports. “The cost of real estate on the street is said to be very high, responsible for Esprit’s departure and creating a tough barrier to many other companies.”
Fingas reports, “Despite the ever-growing reach of Apple’s retail chain — which has hundreds of locations worldwide — a number of European countries still lack Apple Stores.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Austria is a beautiful country that deserves a beautiful Apple Store!
For you film fans, my mother was right there in Vienna in 1948 when Carol Reed was shooting The Third Man, hoping to meet dreamboat actor Joseph Cotten. Alas, he was indisposed. She settled for shaking hands with Orson Welles, already famous from making Citizen Kane. “It was horrible,” she recalled, years later. “His hand was damp and doughy and limp – I almost recoiled.” (She didn’t allow that he might have been similarly indisposed.)
In the movie’s crucial scene, where Cotten’s moral character confronted Welles’s amoral character at the top of the Ferris Wheel (Wiener Riesenrad), the camera offered a grand view of Vienna including nearby Kärntner Straße where Apple’s new store is rumoured to be sited. No doubt about it, there is some time-shifting going on.
I don’t think I have ever seen anyone here use scharfes S (ß) on these forums!
One has to give it to the Viennese for completely banning cars from that centre. The place almost looks like it did in the 18th century (except, of course, for the neon, glass and steel…).
As for the Apple Store, sure enough, the location looks like a nice prime spot (half way between the Staatsoper and St. Stephen church).
As for Reed, Cotten, Welles, a cult picture, definitely (not to mention that zither!).