“Apple Inc. has been granted an exemption from foreign ownership laws in the United Arab Emirates that will allow it 100 percent control of operations in the country, according to two people with knowledge of the matter,” Matthew Martin reports for Bloomberg.
“The dispensation was a condition for the world’s largest listed company to set up in the U.A.E., the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private,” Martin reports. “Apple will open its first Middle East store in Dubai this year and then Abu Dhabi after securing the privileges, according to the people.”
“The U.A.E. is an attractive market for Apple,” Martin reports. “There are about 17 million active mobile subscriptions in the U.A.E. and 61 percent of them are smartphones, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. The iPhone 5s was the most popular handset in the country in the fourth quarter of 2014, the latest figures from the regulator show.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hello, U.A.E.! Hello, Apple Watch Edition sales!
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