Apple CEO Tim Cook Meets Czech Prime Minister, Promises New Apple Store in Prague

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum this week, and today he met with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babi?.

Babi? shared photos of his meeting with Cook on Facebook (via Letemsvetemapplem.eu), and provided some details on what the two discussed. According to Babi?, the two talked about technology in the Czech Republic, also touching on topics such as AI and the economy.

Cook was "thrilled" that there are 500 researchers working in AI in the Czech Republic, and when Babi? asked about an Apple Store for Prague, Cook said that Apple was indeed prepared to open a new Apple Store in the city.

Babi? said the ideal place for the Apple Store would be the Ministry of Regional Development building in the Old Town Square, but should Apple move forward with plans, it's not clear where the store would be located. Apple currently has no retail stores in the Czech Republic.

Cook yesterday met with the Crown Prince of Dubai, and earlier in the week, Cook met with the Armenian Prime Minister and had dinner with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and more.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Meets Czech Prime Minister, Promises New Apple Store in Prague

 

[alpi123]

I will still be waiting for an official Apple store in Bulgaria. With every year, I see more and more people using Apple products, so why not?

 

[Martius]

I hope those promises will become reality. I'm not fan of APR shops in Czech Republic, much worse services than Apple Stores and overpriced repairs.

And Babiš 2nd richest Czech citizen / prime minister... not his fan either...

 

[KrisLord]

Old town square would be a terrible place for the Apple store...

It’d be full of people with no intention of buying anything.

Surely a shopping area would be better?

 

[radiology]

Cook dealing with Bolsonaro is very interesting.

 

[Seoras]

How about an Apple store in Auckland or Wellington Tim?

 

[Reason077]

Old town square would be a terrible place for the Apple store...

It’d be full of people with no intention of buying anything.

Surely a shopping area would be better?

This is exactly the type of location that Apple picks in many cities. Look at Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Amsterdam store, or the old Louvre store in Paris. All areas with heavy foot traffic and lots of tourists, but not really traditional shopping areas.

Putting Apple Stores in these places they capture well-heeled tourists who probably have time on their hands. Even if they don't buy anything on the spot, they're being exposed to the brand and might think about Apple when they get home...

 

[ph001bi]

This is exactly the type of location that Apple picks in many cities. Look at Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Amsterdam store, or the old Louvre store in Paris. All areas with heavy foot traffic and lots of tourists, but not really traditional shopping areas.

Putting Apple Stores in these places they capture well-heeled tourists who probably have time on their hands. Even if they don't buy anything on the spot, they're being exposed to the brand and might think about Apple when they get home...

Correct, I always check out the kit in whichever Apple Store I can find, in any country, and I then order online. I would not expect the Apple Store to be always located in the Mall, it has to be located where I happen to be at the time. Usually a heavy traffic pedestrian area.

 

[trevor12]

I am from Czech republic. It would be good to open genuine Apple store in Prague. I understand that we are state with only 10 milions of people speaking with obscure language but if Apple would want to be competitive with Google (assistant), Amazon (Alexa) it would be necessary to support also so not much interesting market. At this time we have only "Apple Premium Reseller" stores and their supports is miserable not comparable to Apple standards in Apple store. We have no Siri in Czech language, bad Apple maps, no Apple Pay, no extended functions of Apple watch as you Americans, but we have to pay price of Apple products much higher than you, Americans. We have de lege 2 year warranty on products.

 

[KrisLord]

This is exactly the type of location that Apple picks in many cities. Look at Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Amsterdam store, or the old Louvre store in Paris. All areas with heavy foot traffic and lots of tourists, but not really traditional shopping areas.

Putting Apple Stores in these places they capture well-heeled tourists who probably have time on their hands. Even if they don't buy anything on the spot, they're being exposed to the brand and might think about Apple when they get home...

But in Prague it’s people sight seeing and drinking beer on the old town.

There’s no real retail on old town square beyond cheap cheap holiday gifts.

 

[trevor12]

But in Prague it’s people sight seeing and drinking beer on the old town.

There’s no real retail on old town square beyond cheap cheap holiday gifts.

In Prague are more locations suitable for Apple store. Among old town square most prominent (as 5th avenue in NY) are Venceslas square, Na Prikopech street and Parizska (Paris) street.

 

[KrisLord]

In Prague are more locations suitable for Apple store. Among old town square most prominent (as 5th avenue in NY) are Venceslas square, Na Prikopech street and Parizska (Paris) street.

Agreed, I was thinking perhaps the palladium shopping centre or Na Prikope.

I’m not Czech but I’ve been to Prague a lot and the only reason for old town square to be mentioned would be because people have heard of it.

 

[GREEN4U]

apple stores used to be cool when they actually innovated

 

[Gasu E.]

How about an Apple store in Auckland or Wellington Tim?

Logistics. You are over a thousand miles from anywhere. A store in Wellington could not be supported efficiently by a central repair depot. And keeping an isolated store fully stocked is expensive, without the ability to share inventory between stores or utilize a central warehouse. I doubt you have the turnover to support this economically.

 

[Analog Kid]

Logistics. You are over a thousand miles from anywhere. A store in Wellington could not be supported efficiently by a central repair depot. And keeping an isolated store fully stocked is expensive, without the ability to share inventory between stores or utilize a central warehouse. I doubt you have the turnover to support this economically.

They're closer to Apple manufacturing sites than you are and Auckland has more than twice the population of Boston...

 

[Seoras]

Logistics. You are over a thousand miles from anywhere. A store in Wellington could not be supported efficiently by a central repair depot. And keeping an isolated store fully stocked is expensive, without the ability to share inventory between stores or utilize a central warehouse. I doubt you have the turnover to support this economically.

I'm from Scotland. Population size is 5.5million compared to 4.7 million in NZ. Auckland is equal in size to Glasgow and Wellington is similar to Edinburgh.
Glasgow has not 1 but 2 Apple stores. Edinburgh got its own 4 years ago.
I don't buy into your arguments at all. It's got nothing to do with "isolation", in a world made smaller by modern transport and shipping.

 

[fermat-au]

I'm from Scotland. Population size is 5.5million compared to 4.7 million in NZ. Auckland is equal in size to Glasgow and Wellington is similar to Edinburgh.
Glasgow has not 1 but 2 Apple stores. Edinburgh got its own 4 years ago.
I don't buy into your arguments at all. It's got nothing to do with "isolation", in a world made smaller by modern transport and shipping.

My guess is that Apple would only open a Store in New Zealand once they have firm plans to open at-least 3 or 4 more. As others have said logistics and management. There are 22 Apple Stores in Australia. Sydney (~5M pop. same as the whole of NZ) has 8 stores, plus there are 2 more in Newcastle and Canberra (each about the pop. of Wellington) that 2-3 hours drive from Sydney. These two stores would not have been viable without the other the infrastructure and supply chain created by the other stores in Sydney and the rest of Australia. Even something like employee training is more efficient when there are multiple store in the country. Scotland's stores would be-able to take advantage of Apple size across the whole UK and the large London population.

 

[Seoras]

My guess is that Apple would only open a Store in New Zealand once they have firm plans to open at-least 3 or 4 more. As others have said logistics and management. There are 22 Apple Stores in Australia. Sydney (~5M pop. some as the whole of NZ) has 8 stores, plus there are 2 more in Newcastle and Canberra (each about the pop. of Wellington) that 2-3 hours drive from Sydney. These two stores would not have been viable without the other the infrastructure and supply chain created by the other stores in Sydney and the rest of Australia. Even something like employee training is more efficient when there are multiple store in the country. Scotland's stores would be-able to take advantage of Apple size across the whole UK and the large London population.

I'm not suggesting that NZ is an outpost of Australia but from a business point of view they do get lumped together even though they are as far apart as Canada and Scotland.
TVNZ is pushing an awful lot of Apple Adverts right now so my point is even more valid I think.
What's the point of making a marketing push into a country where you have no store presence?
This came home for me and the wife recently when we went looking to take advantage of the discount battery replacement program for her iPhone 6 Plus.
You can order online from apple.com/nz but you can't pop into the store for after sales support etc.

Another outsiders observation I've made is that there's a strong anti-Apple bias here in favour of east Asian brands.
I see that in cars too. A preference for Japanese or Korean. The world Chinese is a by-word for poor quality & dirt cheap.
Head over to stuff.co.nz and read the tech articles and readers comments on mobiles to see what I mean. If you think anti-apple haters are strong on MR you've seen nothing yet. I've seen comment moderators delete posts for being apple positive or pointing out straight out lies and propaganda.
A store in NZ is needed to restore a balance otherwise Apple's wasting their money on NZ advertising.

 

[fermat-au]

I'm not suggesting that NZ is an outpost of Australia but from a business point of view they do get lumped together even though they are as far apart as Canada and Scotland.
TVNZ is pushing an awful lot of Apple Adverts right now so my point is even more valid I think.
What's the point of making a marketing push into a country where you have no store presence?
This came home for me and the wife recently when we went looking to take advantage of the discount battery replacement program for her iPhone 6 Plus.
You can order online from apple.com/nz but you can't pop into the store for after sales support etc.

Another outsiders observation I've made is that there's a strong anti-Apple bias here in favour of east Asian brands.
I see that in cars too. A preference for Japanese or Korean. The world Chinese is a by-word for poor quality & dirt cheap.
Head over to stuff.co.nz and read the tech articles and readers comments on mobiles to see what I mean. If you think anti-apple haters are strong on MR you've seen nothing yet. I've seen comment moderators delete posts for being apple positive or pointing out straight out lies and propaganda.
A store in NZ is needed to restore a balance otherwise Apple's wasting their money on NZ advertising.

I know many companies treat Australia and New Zealand as one region, like they may treat Western Europe as one region. New Zealand is in fact closer to Sydney where Apple AU/NZ HQ is, than many parts of Australia. I have heard something about Apple Store all being run by Apple out of Cupertino, not by Apple AU/NZ. Are the Apple ads in NZ TV for the iPhone or Apple products in general? If the iPhone could Apple be relying on the carriers to sell the iPhones?

 

[Seoras]

I know many companies treat Australia and New Zealand as one region, like they may treat Western Europe as one region. New Zealand is in fact closer to Sydney where Apple AU/NZ HQ is, than many parts of Australia. I have heard something about Apple Store all being run by Apple out of Cupertino, not by Apple AU/NZ. Are the Apple ads in NZ TV for the iPhone or Apple products in general? If the iPhone could Apple be relying on the carriers to sell the iPhones?

No these are apple's own ads like the ones MR has been sharing. Occasionally you'll see mention of a reseller or carrier but rarely. Apple are struggling here and lack of presence is going to be one of many factors. Prime time Ads just aren't enough. Microsoft and Google have a strong presence in NZ, you can see their lobbying paying off in public spending, schools etc. Samsung seems to control the written media editorial on the mobile market.

 

[fermat-au]

No these are apple's own ads like the ones MR has been sharing. Occasionally you'll see mention of a reseller or carrier but rarely. Apple are struggling here and lack of presence is going to be one of many factors. Prime time Ads just aren't enough. Microsoft and Google have a strong presence in NZ, you can see their lobbying paying off in public spending, schools etc. Samsung seems to control the written media editorial on the mobile market.

In Australia Apple iPhone ads offend had a carrier logo at the very end, apparently Apple and the carriers share some of the advertising costs. More people upgrading to the new iPhone is good for the big 3 carriers as well as Apple.
I don't know the New Zealand market, but could it be partly that Apple products in general are too expensive in NZ?
What is the iPhone market share in NZ? Kantar Worldpanel publishers smart phone data for Australia, we have a similar Android/iOS ratios as the US. My guess NZ would look more like AU than the EU.
There were no Apple stores in Australia until '08, then Apple open many in quick succession. Looking store id numbers, most of the Australian ones are in the 200's and 300's. There haven't been many more new stores open recently. The only possible new store is Federation Square, and that would be a flag ship store that Apple has been trying to open for years. If when New Zealand gets an Apple Store I would bet it would be 4 or 5 within 12-18 months.