Apple's Retail Push into China Still Limited, But Ramping Up

[MuppetGate]

Apple needs to ensure in all of it's stores public restrooms. Even in their US locations this is often a problem. It is simply unforgivable, given the size of their facilities, kids areas, length of transactions, in fact for any retailer not to provide a damn toilet and a sink. Who cares how grand and beautiful the place is when you have to threaten the personnel to either immediately open the back door or the five year old will urinate right now, right here in the iPad section.

Then the staff would have to clean the bathrooms and I wouldn't wish that job on anyone. Besides, most of the Apple stores are located in or near shopping centres so there's usually a bathroom close by.

Unless the Apple Stores start selling coffee and cakes there is no need for them to have restrooms.

 

[jlnr]

It's already conquered - extremely high iPhone density here in Shanghai.

So Shanghai is conquered, not necessarily all of China.

 

[FrankHahn]

Thet were made for each other, so to speak.

Image

Steve Jobs head on the shoulders of Chairman Mao!

 

[flameproof]

Since Germany and Singapore don't have Apple Stores themselves....

Germany has not just Bratwurst places, I count 8 Apple stores:

http://www.apple.com/de/retail/

But true, SG has only resellers.

China has many resellers too that sell ORIGINAL Apple products.

 

[Fattytail]

Not near to central business districts? It's in the IFC mall which is a major transport and shopping hub in HK... the metro stop is called Central. I believe it's suspended over Connaught Road which is the heart of the business district.

Mongkok is more of a discount clothing and electronics area, not really Apple prime real estate. Wanchai not sure, it's more small boutiques and such.

Not suspended over Connaught Road, just a little side street within IFC. But directly adjacent to Connaught.

Clearly that other guy has never been to the IFC or the Apple store. Always, and I mean always, packed. Doesn't matter what day or what time of the day. Always teeming with people on both floors.

If the rumors are true, both Festive Walk and TST are good. TST especially. Incredible shopping volume there, much of it high end.

 

[Bezetos]

Still no Apple Store's in Germany, Poland...

Anybody know why?

Initially it was due to the fact that e.g. in Poland there wasn't a big market for high-end computers and luxury gadgets (one could say that Poles are more down to earth when it comes to buying electronics when compared with others). This was also the case in Germany, however things have changed and they are already building one there. There are also plans to build one in Poland, however at the moment there are only "official resellers" there.

EDIT: Apparently there are already open Apple Stores in Germany so I wasn't up to date with the situation there

 

[Kwramm]

So Shanghai is conquered, not necessarily all of China.

The rest would be conquered too if there were stores. Not long ago they closed down a bogus apple store which was so real not even some of the people working there had a clue it was fake. The only difference to a real store was that the staircase wasn't made out of glass (although they covered it now in the Pudong store). The rest of the experience was copied 1:1, products were real too. Why open up a fake Apple store? Because there's INSANE demand!

There's a huge demand on Apple stores and products here and it drives an entire black market of people buying Apple products en-masse in Beijing, Shanghai and HK to import them into the mainland and distribute them to areas where no official and no licensed stores exist.Add to that the fact that new products are always available much later in mainland China.

After the iPhone became available here it was sold out within 2 hours everywhere. And with the 4S you had to wait for 2 months after the China release to actually be able to walk to a store and buy one. It was sold out completely. Not even in HK you could get one. People were mass buying them, and people hired other people to buy phones for them after Apple put a limit on how many one could buy.
Since this didn't help they made it more difficult and limited the purchase to credit card payment only so people couldn't just hire a migrant worker, give them money and tell them "buy all the iPhones you can get". When that failed to work you had to make an appointment to actually buy one!

At the HK border crossing you'd see people carrying so many iPads, the Chinese customs themselves had to limit the amount people could import! (I guess Apple intervened here).

There's not much for apple to do other than open more stores and make some cheaper versions of some of their flagships - i guess that's why they still offer the 3GS here.

Yet you see people with iPhone 4 and 4S who don't look like they can't afford them. But they're the real thing. If you can't afford a car or apartment, an iPhone is the best status symbol you can get here. And people are prepared to save lots of money from their small salaries to buy them.

It's really an Apple craze here. Don't believe me? Go to China, put an iPhone on the middle of the table and watch people stare at it

 

[Puevlo]

It's already conquered - extremely high iPhone density here in Shanghai. Everyone and their dog has a 4 or 4S.

I'm sorry but this does not make any sense. Why would they give their phone to their lunch?

 

[Winni]

Great...when is Berlin - the 3.5 Mio inhabitants counting capital of Germany - finally getting an Apple Store?

When will Taco Bells, Wendy's and Mr Wimpy invade Germany? When will we get our own local Disney Land? And where the heck is Doctor Pepper?

Really, who cares whether we will also get (another) one of those useless gadget temples or not? You can buy that stuff online and they will send it to your home. When you buy Apple Care, they will also fetch your broken gadget from your house, bring it to one of their repair shops and send it back to you within a couple of days. Sure, that is not as good as Dell's Pro Support who would fix it right at your home or office, but it's a start. At least Apple's support is more expensive than Dell's and they have those fruit logos on their products, that compensates everything, doesn't it?

We need competent people fast!

And you seriously expect to find them at an Apple RETAIL store? Or at ANY retail store, for that matter? You've got to be kidding.

 

[G5isAlive]

I wonder how anyone can be fooled by fake stores... but then I suppose not everyone has access to the internet. Or do they really care?

 

[Kwramm]

I wonder how anyone can be fooled by fake stores... but then I suppose not everyone has access to the internet. Or do they really care?

If you've never seen an original apple store before it's easy to be fooled by a nearly perfect copy that's decked out with original products, everyone wearing the blue apple t-shirts, same furniture, etc. If you have no reference, how to tell if it's real or not?

The even copied an Ikea store in another town. The only way you could tell was that they spelled the store name in Chinese a bit unusual and that instead of Swedish fare they served Chinese in the restaurant.

Or there was the case of the fake iPhones where only Apple itself could tell they were fake, after they disassembled them, because they were made partially with smuggled original parts.

Basically Chinese are very good at copying stuff

 

[Galatian]

When will Taco Bells, Wendy's and Mr Wimpy invade Germany? When will we get our own local Disney Land? And where the heck is Doctor Pepper?

Really, who cares whether we will also get (another) one of those useless gadget temples or not? You can buy that stuff online and they will send it to your home. When you buy Apple Care, they will also fetch your broken gadget from your house, bring it to one of their repair shops and send it back to you within a couple of days. Sure, that is not as good as Dell's Pro Support who would fix it right at your home or office, but it's a start. At least Apple's support is more expensive than Dell's and they have those fruit logos on their products, that compensates everything, doesn't it?

And you seriously expect to find them at an Apple RETAIL store? Or at ANY retail store, for that matter? You've got to be kidding.

Ok you've got a point, but we do have Dr. Pepper...it is just ridiculously expensive

The real problem actually is that: Apple product have a pretty low repairability at least for the private person (see my anecdote on the broken keyboard). The way I see it: If I already have to pay big money on the repair parts I might as well have some specialist do the repair for me. And I do believe (and experienced from the Gravis Store in Bremen and Leipzig and the Apple store in Hamburg) that the employees in directly Apple owned shops seem to be better trained and have generally a better understanding of what they are taking about.

 

[gloryunited]

If the rumors are true, both Festive Walk and TST are good. TST especially. Incredible shopping volume there, much of it high end.

As a matter of fact, the shopping mall in Kowloon Tong is called Festival Walk.

And yeah I'd definitely want to see a flagship Apple Store in TST!
Imagine a sphere-shaped Apple store stand next to the dome-shaped Hong Kong Space Museum...lol

 

[shaunp]

While I hope Apple do well in China, at the same time I don't want them to have a monopoly. Everyone needs competition.

Why the down votes.

You do realise how bad it would be if Apple did have a monopoly don't you?

 

[Ping Guo]

I wonder how anyone can be fooled by fake stores... but then I suppose not everyone has access to the internet. Or do they really care?

Maybe you don't realize how good the Chinese are at counterfeiting, whether it's electronics, designer clothing, watches, food products, cognac and whisky, perfume, auto parts, drugs, medical supplies, or retail space. If they can fool retailers and experts across the world in different industries, they can fool some Chinese shoppers who've never seen the inside of a real Apple store.

 

[coolspot18]

I wonder how anyone can be fooled by fake stores... but then I suppose not everyone has access to the internet. Or do they really care?

The fake store sold genuine goods, so in the end, does it really matter? Basically an non-authorized reseller. Just like your local Costco...

http://reviews.costco.ca/2070-en_ca...5-4-in-hd-led-4-gb-500-gb-reviews/reviews.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielf...-omega-is-about-much-more-than-cheap-watches/

Maybe you don't realize how good the Chinese are at counterfeiting

The goods at the store were not counterfeit according to news reports.

 

[flameproof]

Maybe you don't realize how good the Chinese are at counterfeiting

I never saw any counterfeit Apple product that runs iOS. They are obviously not that good with Apple products.

 

[Asia8]

I'd assume the slower opening of apple stores in China would have something to do with not being able to sell iPads. Now that it is over and the iPad goes on, they can open more stores. Would be a lot of empty table space without iPads.

 

[Ping Guo]

I never saw any counterfeit Apple product that runs iOS. They are obviously not that good with Apple products.

Copying the design of a store, even from photos, should be relatively easy except for the glass staircase. And the products inside are genuine, it's just the store that's fake. However, a friend of mine bought a fake iPhone last year (in Shanghai) running a fake iOS, from a small vendor. When I checked, the software seemed a bit off but it was a very convincing copy. And I've owned an iPhone for years.

 

[SenorVvangIstMoi]

SG don't have such gorgeous Apple stall but we're filled with countless retail stores

 

[Mactrix]

Apple shouldn't get involved in the affairs of China. After all, it's an insane dictatorship. Google was forced to bow in front of the oh-so-powerful party leaders. Will Apple be as corrupt as the party and will the company censor and watch it's users?

 

[toke lahti]

What's wrong with Pennsylvania? It's huge.

"Apple has more stores everywhere than in Scandinavia, where the Apple Store count is zero..."
I know we are just 5 countries and Pennsylvania is huge, but...

 

[Asia8]

Apple shouldn't get involved in the affairs of China. After all, it's an insane dictatorship. Google was forced to bow in front of the oh-so-powerful party leaders. Will Apple be as corrupt as the party and will the company censor and watch it's users?

You obviously know little about China. Google left because they failed to even make a dent against Baidu, the major search engine in China. It had nothing to do with the government and everything to do with their business related failures.

Google decided to claim their leaving of China was due to the government, as to not admit failure in one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world.

All Google did other than close down their office in China though was change .com.cn to .com.hk. They're still serving China with no real difference. Their lies are just to keep people ignorant to the truth.

It was all about money, and Google doesn't understand China culture and what the Chinese people want in a search engine service. They failed, they left.

 

[coolspot18]

Apple shouldn't get involved in the affairs of China. After all, it's an insane dictatorship. Google was forced to bow in front of the oh-so-powerful party leaders.

You have quite the misperception of China. While China is not democratic, its leaders are not insane, and in fact are probably the best (responsible) leaders the country has had in 100+ years. True, the country can do with more human rights, more freedoms, more everything, but you have to also remember they are a country of 1.3 billion versus 5 million in Norway. A single city in China has more people than all of Norway. The largest metropolitan areas have 6x the population of Norway,

China can and has descended into chaos many times in its history so some of the heavy handed tactics are a necessity to maintain order. Western mores and expectations cannot be applied to China directly - the country just works on a totally different scale than what you and I are used to.

 

[ryuok]

The store in Hong Kong very beautiful but they kill all the small Apple Stores like my friends at New Vision. They going to be a Walmart like in USA trying to get all the business and forgetting all the small retailers who helping them develope the market. But we knowing all that when you getting so big the only way going is down and down they will going.

Your friends' business is killed not because of Apple, but because it's rubbish compared with Apple Store. Don't try to confuse people with the Walmart example. Apple didn't compete with your friends' store with low prices. What they did is that they focused on offering much better shopping experience including product display, demo, staff friendliness, return policy and repair services. Your friends' business focused on none of those. I'm not going to miss your friends' business at all.

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You have quite the misperception of China. While China is not democratic, its leaders are not insane, and in fact are probably the best (responsible) leaders the country has had in 100+ years. True, the country can do with more human rights, more freedoms, more everything, but you have to also remember they are a country of 1.3 billion versus 5 million in Norway. A single city in China has more people than all of Norway. The largest metropolitan areas have 6x the population of Norway,

China can and has descended into chaos many times in its history so some of the heavy handed tactics are a necessity to maintain order. Western mores and expectations cannot be applied to China directly - the country just works on a totally different scale than what you and I are used to.

Time to collect your 0.5 yuan from the Communist Party, or are you paid in dollar?