Apple Opening First Retail Store in China

[MacRumors]

from WSJ's China Journal
On July 19th, Apple is opening its first retail store in China in Beijing's Sanlitun entertainment district. The store opens at 10 a.m. local time.

"This is the first of many stores we will open in China," said Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president of retail, in remarks at the store. He later added that Apple will open stores "in Beijing, in Shanghai and beyond," and confirmed that another store will open in Beijing's Qianmen area, a shopping street south of Tiananmen Square that has been renovated ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin next month.

The store carries the same design as Apple's other retail stores but with a multilingual Genius bar. Since Apple has not yet negotiated a distribution deal with Chinese carriers, the iPhone will not be available initially. Apple's presence in China was reportedly minimal before the iPod's introduction about 5 years ago, but Apple appears to be continuing to expand their international retail push. This will be their 219th retail store worldwide.

The Wall Street Journal's China Journal provides photos from the new store.

Article Link

 

[tjcampbell]

Won't most people just get stuff from their friend that works at the factory?

 

[donga]

Won't most people just get stuff from their friend that works at the factory?

haha, yeah, but there's still ton$ of people who'll just pay for it.

 

[Sirobin]

Heh, I can totally see at the stores, once the iPhone launches, "Shoot, we're out of phones. Somebody go next store and get more"

 

[ravenvii]

Heh, I can totally see at the stores, once the iPhone launches, "Shoot, we're out of phones. Somebody go next store and get more"

or "****, we're out of phones. Somebody go grab some fakes - nobody will know the difference!"

 

[DocGrover]

Sad to see......

Lucky Chinese, I have to admit with quite a bit of envy.....
It's quite hard to believe that China gets numerous Apple Stores before we do here in Germany where there isn't a single one yet. Okay, we have Gravis, but that's by far not the same......

 

[TwinCities Dan]

Awesome News! Go Apple!

 

[teflon]

Yeah about time!
iPods are actually quite popular in Beijing, especially since they have a huge amount of foreign population.

 

[NDLaHam]

This is great news! I have been in Hangzhou, China for 7 weeks and started to realize they don't have Apple stores. No where. 99 percent of all people here use PC's too so this is a good way to spread the market share a little to Apple. Also the only Macs and iPods I did find here were was more expensive then the United States.

 

[cheungpat]

When could I see an Apple Store in Hong Kong? I hope Hong Kong would be next. (Next to Shanghai, apparently.)

 

[Corran Horn]

Sweeeeet

I'm in Beijing right now, working at the Olympics, so I'll head down there after I get off work tomorrow!

I'll take pictures and post them for you all as well!

 

[JoeDRC]

look at how thin those MBAs look! *drools*

 

[Luzzio]

Finally, The People's Mac.

 

[jonharris200]

Does China have apples (as in the fruit)? Looking at the photo, I'm just wondering whether the apple logo 'says' the word 'apple' to a Chinese mind or not.

In the English language, the association is obvious. But what about Chinese or other languages?

Perhaps someone from mainland China can enlighten us?

 

[Cybornut]

For crying out loud, it's been long overdue!

Apple retail here's been too innondated with products smuggled in from HK at as much as 20% discount. Official Apple products have to be sent to China and "Re-imported" in, carrying a heavy import tax.

This is annoying... hopefully with the Apple store natively something would be done.

Last year the GM of Apple in China had changed 3 times! And for the amount of products made in or assambled in China, the central managament is definitely still very "un-Apple"....

 

[tjcampbell]

Does China have apples (as in the fruit)? Looking at the photo, I'm just wondering whether the apple logo 'says' the word 'apple' to a Chinese mind or not.

In the English language, the association is obvious. But what about Chinese or other languages?

Perhaps someone from mainland China can enlighten us?

Of course they have apples. In Chinese an apple is 苹果 pronounce ping guo. And Apple Computer is referred to as Ping guo Dian nao.

Apple Computer 苹果电闹。

BUT because of the recent name change to Apple Inc, it would be referred to is Ping Guo Gong si. Apple Inc. - 苹果公司。

 

[eli8527]

Can't Wait

I'm going to the opening tomorrow! I will be live blogging on my iPhone (unlocked) and its REAL, not a fake one, though I have seen those hanging around here.

I will be blogging and posting photos on my twitter starting from 7:00 AM local time. For anyone who wants to join me, it is: http://www.twitter.com/eli8527

 

[SiriusExcelsior]

When would taiwan get some apple love...? There's a lot of "third party apple alternative" products there, even being sold as "apple-like" (eg. "Apple-style nano MP3 player").. should do apple some good to get some market presence there..

 

[emulator]

it will be buried deep in the sand pretty soon anyway, just like Peking.

 

[Arisian]

Wei shen me zai zhe ge zhao pian mei yi ge ren shi wai guo ren?

(Why is every person in this picture an american?)


Arisian

Of course they have apples. In Chinese an apple is 苹果 pronounce ping guo. And Apple Computer is referred to as Ping guo Dian nao.

Apple Computer 苹果电闹。

BUT because of the recent name change to Apple Inc, it would be referred to is Ping Guo Gong si. Apple Inc. - 苹果公司。

he's right... it would be a Gong si now (company/Inc).
PLUS, they've been pirating apple stuff for almost a decade now.

In the town I live in, we are in the but crack of no where but we have a chinese lady in town who sells real apple products.

 

[eli8527]

Wei shen me zai zhe ge zhao pian mei yi ge ren shi wai guo ren?

(Why is every person in this picture an american?)


Arisian

Your wrong. The real translation in english is: Why is everyone in this picture a foreigner.
Trust me, i'm chinese and i get it.

 

[Arisian]

Your wrong. The real translation in english is: Why is everyone in this picture a foreigner.
Trust me, i'm chinese and i get it.

yeah, I speak chinese. I didnt drop that into a translator. If you lived in Qing Hai you would understand why I said what I said. Every freak'n day 1.2 million people yelling 'Foreigner' at you. Im so indoctrinated with it that when I want to say American, I sometimes say foreigner...

but thanks for point it out. That seems real necissary.

 

[cleanup]

Damn. I really could have used an Apple store when I was in Shanghai. The Apple Centres around there were a little small.

The prices are ridiculously high, unfortunately. I paid close to $2000 CAD for my black MacBook. Maybe Apple actually having a true retail presence in China will bring the prices down, but they'll still be quite high, since they're still considered foreign goods. Funny how that works. H&M, Zara, Starbucks, and other foreign companies sell goods that are priced the same as everywhere else in the world. Why not Apple?

Off-topic:

UNIQLO! God I miss that place.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

I wonder what sort of back doors China will force Apple to put in? (Above what is there now)

 

[thecartoonguy]

Of course they have apples. In Chinese an apple is ?? pronounce ping guo. And Apple Computer is referred to as Ping guo Dian nao.

Apple Computer ?????

BUT because of the recent name change to Apple Inc, it would be referred to is Ping Guo Gong si. Apple Inc. - ?????

Thank you. That was pretty awesome lesson