Apple to Open First Turkish Retail Store in Istanbul on April 5

[MacRumors]

Apple is ready to open its first retail store next week in Turkey, with a grand opening gala that may feature Apple CEO Tim Cook and Turkish President Abdullah Gül. Located in Istanbul's Zorlu Center Shopping Center, the retail store will open at 10:00 AM on Saturday, April 5, 2014, reports Elma Dergisi.

The Turkish store occupies approximately 20,000 square feet in the heart of Istanbul's popular, multi-use shopping center. The Zorlu Center store is thought to feature a cubic glass ceiling, glass sides and in-store services such as a dedicated "Family Room" floor and dual Genius Bars, reports 9to5Mac. The structure is currently hidden behind barricades until its official debut.

This Zorlu Center store is the first of several retail stores planned for Turkey as Apple makes inroads into this new market. Apple also met with Turkish government officials to equip Turkish school children with 10.6 million tablets in a new education initiative to bring cutting-edge technology into schools.

Though negotiations appeared to be favorable for Apple, this bid eventually was awarded to Turkish company Telpa, which is providing tablets from General Mobile, a Turkish-owned company operating out of the United States.

Article Link: Apple to Open First Turkish Retail Store in Istanbul on April 5

 

[fatespawn]

Can you test YouTube in the store?

 

[byke]

I read a tweet about that.

 

[KdParker]

For a doomed company, they sure do appear to be growing

/sarcasm

 

[gr8whtd0pe]

Not Constantinople?

 

[valdikor]

If I were Apple, I would hold off the opening until the free internet speech "issue" is resolved and the government comes to its senses. Apple shouldn't turn a blind eye to these matters.

 

[SAIRUS]

I tweeted a youtube link of the unveiling.


How much you wanna bet this post will get moved to the politics forum?

 

[redmac]

If I were Apple, I would hold off the opening until the free internet speech "issue" is resolved and the government comes to its senses. Apple shouldn't turn a blind eye to these matters.

Then, there may never be an Apple Store in Turkey. My fellow citizens are know to choose the worst possible candidates in every election.

 

[Calle68]

Ah

Opens only to be closed by Erdogan right away.

 

[NMBob]

10.6 million.

Maybe that's all the leftover iPad2s.

 

[Red Oak]

Crazy they awarded the tablet RFP to someone without any history, product, or service platforms. Purely because it is Turkish

This will be billions of dollars in wasted investment. An incredible opportunity they let get away

 

[newyorksole]

It looks like it's gonna be another iteration of the 5th Ave Cube

 

[jayducharme]

Though negotiations appeared to be favorable for Apple, this bid eventually was awarded to Turkish company Telpa, which is providing tablets from General Mobile, a Turkish-owned company operating out of the United States.

The world of politics continues to baffle me.

 

[Red Oak]

Turkish government required USB ports. What a joke

 

[emir]

Coloured dots forming the top quarter of the Apple logo on the banner represents the iconic Bosphorus bridge's lights. The bridge connects Europe to Asia. Istanbul literally is a city located in both Europe and Asia. Here's a photo of the bridge.

Also Apple is said to open 4 more stores in Turkey by the end of 2015. One, located in the Asian side of Istanbul was photographed under construction, in a mall called "Akasya".

I'm pretty excited about this cause it means decent Apple customer service, Apple care, international guarantee and probably product launches simultaneously with the world. Up until now it has always been US, UK, Germany, France launch, then second tier country launch, then 3rd and then Turkey. If iPhones were launched early-Sep, it would officially arrive to Turkey mid-november. If this could move us up to at least 2nd tier it would be amazing.

[politics]
As a side note; I'm super annoyed and angry about the Turkish government's unacceptable demonisation of social media and I hope they'll get the answer on this Sunday's elections. Most of the people can still connect to Twitter and youtube just by changing their DNSs anyways but this attitude is non-democratic and unacceptable. In my eyes, the prime-minister is not legitimate anymore because he is literally above the law. [/politics]

 

[fullauto]

Loving the logo design on those banners, very nice!

 

[KimJonNumberUn]

ooo a new apple store in a place like turkey...what a surprise >.>

 

[emir]

It looks like it's gonna be another iteration of the 5th Ave Cube

Most people expect the same thing but it could turn out to be a giant, beautiful glass dome. Istanbul and the skyline of Istanbul is pretty much known with its domes since Istanbul has so many mosques that date back to almost a thousand years. Also Apple has spent more than 1.5 years constructing this store, and it is also rumoured that the architecture of it will be so great that it'll be one of the flagship stores of Apple. Who knows, maybe we'll see a great glass dome. That would be great.

 

[goobot]

Most people expect the same thing but it could turn out to be a giant, beautiful glass dome. Istanbul and the skyline of Istanbul is pretty much known with its domes since Istanbul has so many mosques that date back to almost a thousand years. Also Apple has spent more than 1.5 years constructing this store, and it is also rumoured that the architecture of it will be so great that it'll be one of the flagship stores of Apple. Who knows, maybe we'll see a great glass dome. That would be great.

Based off the photo i doubt it is a glass dome.

 

[emir]

Based off the photo i doubt it is a glass dome.

The banner might be plywood only to reveal a beautiful glass dome when removed. Who knows? I'm not arguing that it definitely will be a glass dome, and I would like to hope it will, it however is just a possibility, and a low one.

 

[bpcookson]

But why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.

 

[mp3dk]

And here in Denmark we are still waiting to get our first store...

 

[bawbac]

Midnight Express 2

 

[gnasher729]

If I were Apple, I would hold off the opening until the free internet speech "issue" is resolved and the government comes to its senses. Apple shouldn't turn a blind eye to these matters.

Should they stop selling in the USA until the NSA stops spying on people?

 

[emir]

And here in Denmark we are still waiting to get our first store...

Sad truth is, people in countries like Brazil and Turkey (a.k.a. emerging markets) just recently started getting decent disposable income and they have things to spend their money on in their countries for the first time. (been happening for the past 30 years) Also in countries like this, personal financing is very easy because banks are really thirsty to give out credit cards, there are instalments up to 24 months while buying a laptop or even a phone, there are more, much more young people than in Denmark. Last but not least people are more willing to buy stuff like electronics, cars as a status showing item so it makes them a more attractive market for Apple even though per capita income is probably much more than two of these countries in Denmark. Flip side of the coin is, most of the population is in enormous credit card debts, interest rates are making them even worse and that's why Turkish government banned instalments to sale of phones and tablets recently. (only thing they did in the past year that made sense)

Whereas in Denmark people are more educated, probably not that eager to spend too much without thinking about their budget thoroughly and there aren't as much young people, I'm not even talking about the population difference.