“German department store chain Karstadt will sell Apple’s coveted iPhone, Karstadt said on Monday, adding that it was too soon to say whether the phones would be sold with or without a contract,” Reuters reports.
“‘We will offer the iPhone,’ a Karstadt spokeswoman said, confirming a report due to be published in German weekly WirtschaftsWoche. The spokeswoman said Karstadt hoped to have the phones in stock in time for the Christmas shopping season,” Reuters reports.
“Apple has not yet given details of how it plans to sell the iPhone in Europe beyond saying it will be available in late 2007,” Reuters reports. “A spokesman for Apple Europe declined to comment on any plans to sell the phones in Karstadt stores.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dion” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Rudolph Karstadt opened his first store on May 14, 1881 in Wismar, Germany. 125 years after it was founded, Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH – a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcandor AG – is one of Europe’s leading department store companies. Between 2.5 and 3 million customers visit its 90 department stores and 32 Karstadt Sport stores daily.
WHAT?!? w-w-why them? argh!
According to the German Macsite “Macnews.de” also the giant electronic warehouse “Mediamarkt” is going to offer the iPhone:
http://www.macnews.de/news/101443.html
THIS is going to be big fellas!
MacB, NL
This is very very sehr gud, sehr gud meine gruppenbossman
@ MacB
THATS GREAT!!! i work there…..muhahaha 😀
xx,
it’s a bit silly to try use a language that you don’t know, and doubly so when you’re also a victim of petty predjudices.
Ich schlage vor, zuerst Englisch richtig zu lernen!
Na, jut. Isch freu’ misch.
Naja, Karstadt und MediaMarkt sind jetzt nicht so der Renner. IMHO
Karstadt is not really appropiate when it comes to style or applishness, neither is MediaMarkt. I assume Apple will let just about anyone sell it, if they are allowed to do so.
Those are big stores, don’t get me wrong but they just don’t match Apple. Only fools would buy an iPod in Karstadt. Probably the clerk would try to convince you of buying any junk cheap mp3-player instead of the “oh so expensive” iPod.
Apple should better go with Gravis, which essentially IS Apple in Germany, when it comes to retail. Only problem: just 30 stores(shops).
I hope that Saturn carries it as well, since they have a much better Apple product selection than MediaMarkt due to their dedicated Apple store-in-stores. Even the smaller Saturn outlets have a lot more floor space dedicated to Apple products than MediaMarkt.
OTOH, MediaMarkt and Saturn belong to the same corporation (The Metro Group, the largest retail conglomerate in Europe), so we might indeed see the iPhone in both stores. Throw Gravis (Europe’s largest Apple reseller) into the mix, and the iPhone launch will be a lot bigger than most people here in continental Europe think.
Don’t forget it will also be sold in the numerous cell-phone shops of the ‘provider’, whoever that might be.
Karstadt is like a cheap K-Mart….how many times have they been reorganized, near bankruptcy???
It is for the lower-income bracket of people. Ugly, ugly stores.
MediaMarkt…hmmm. lots of stores that is for sure. But they are definitely not Apple minded. They stock iPods only….right next to umpteen zillion other MP3 players.
If Telekom has the contract to provide service then they will have them in their stores and that is probably where 90% of buyers will get them.
And an Apple Branded store in Germany? Only 90,000,000 people live in Germany why would Apple want to have stores in Germany?
There’s a MediaMarkt 10km from where I live. Yessss
The retail stores reported to sell the iPhone in Germany so far are:
Gravis (confirmed)
Karstadt (confirmed)
MediaMarkt / Saturn (Metro Group)
T-Mobile shops or Vodafone shops
Now if we only knew who won the provider contract…
@Hanz und Franz,
“And an Apple Branded store in Germany? Only 90,000,000 people live in Germany why would Apple want to have stores in Germany?”
Perhaps because 44% of Apple’s revenue comes from Europe, and over 80% of Apple’s European sales come from Germany?
so MDN, the legacy of Rudolph Karstadt, youhappen to know this? or are you gathering your info from an uncredited source?
gzero–
I think your sarcasm meter is broken.
This is interesting. I know there are Apple stores in France and the UK, but what about the rest of the continent? Can any of the Europeans reading this provide some details about Apple Stores in or plans for stores in Germany and other European countries? We get plenty about what’s happening here. Need to know what’s happening in Europe and Asia as well.
I thank you in advance.
Es ist mir egal, wie das iPhone nach Deutschland kommt, nur hoffentlich bald. Ich bin auch bereit, meinen aktuellen Vertrag zu kündigen.
Germany = Zero Apple stores.
Planned: Zero + 0.
Same for Austria and Switzerland and Holland and Belgium and Denmark and Sweden, Norway, Finland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal….uh, you get the picture.
Europe has more people that the U.S.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Dear Wienerschnitzelled ( Kann man wirklich ein Weiner Schnitzellen?)
It’s unfortunate that Apple doesn’t, for what ever reason, see how the Apple store would work in many European countries.
With as innovative as Apple can be with their products and marketing you would think they would have figured out a clever way to market their goods in Europe by now.
Maybe the American store model is too big. How about that Boutique store Concept? Maybe the Store with in a store concept is a better and cost effective approach. Let folks play with a Mac, then play with a Sony in the same store….. Which is clearly better?