First Apple Store to open on Sanlitun’s Bar Street
The long-awaited Apple Store is set to open soon on Sanlitun’s renowned bar street in East Beijing’s Chaoyang district. iPhone’s offical landing is yet to be reached between Apple and China Mobile, the country’s biggest cell phone carrier. According to Apple4.us, a blog website for the fans of Apple products, the current location was Apple’s second choice - another store on the company’s preferred location of Qianmen Avenue, close to Tiananmen Square, has been postponed due to construction work.
The detail concerning the store’s location is still unknown; however, an internal source of Apple says the first store features about 1000 square meters and the second one, to be expected on Qianmen Avenue features about 3000 square meters. Unlike other Apple reseller store around China, the Apple Store is directly run by Apple rather than its Chinese dealers and is supposed to provide the most exciting first-hand experience for the Apple fans.
The blog article did not say anything about the schedule of the online shop for iTune. Traditionally, the company starts a website for downloading simultaneously with the opening of an Apple store. It, however, mentioned it was to their bigger interest to have a flagship store first than to run an online shop.
Excited by the fastest growing pool of fans in China, Apple is equally worried about the intellectual property issue. As there is still no agreement between Apple and Chinese cell phone carriers, most of the iPhones sold on the Chinese market are smuggled from Hong Kong or USA. Those iPhones are then illegally “unlocked” by special software, but miss some key functions of their legal counterparts.
Images: Apple logo, Apple Store in Manhatten, NYC.