“A year after opening a flagship store here, Apple has a problem that any retailer would envy: the huge 16,000-square-foot space is already too small,” David Barboza reports for The New York Times.
“Huge crowds descend the store’s glass staircase, only to discover legions of mostly young Chinese crowding around spare displays of Apple’s devices,” Barboza reports. “Another Apple Store, four miles away, is also packed.”
Barboza reports, “To cope, Apple says it is now planning a third, even larger Shanghai store, as well as dozens of other stores throughout the country… Analysts say few global brands have achieved such a feat in China. ‘Apple has done what Google and Facebook cannot do: become No. 1 in China,’ said John Quelch, former senior associate dean of Harvard Business School and now head of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. ‘Scarcity sells, and this is the same strategy Apple has used in the U.S.'”
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“Last week, Apple reported blockbuster sales and profits in its third quarter, including $3.8 billion in revenue in greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Barboza reports. “For the first three quarters of Apple’s fiscal year, revenue in greater China was $8.8 billion — six times that of a year earlier. Last quarter, Apple may have even generated more revenue in China than Lenovo — the Chinese PC maker.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Citymark” for the heads up.]
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