At least some Apple Stores will hold back some iPad Air inventory for Personal Pickup, later purchases

Just hours after going live for sale in several countries in the Asia-Pacific, all models of the iPad Air have become “currently unavailable” at the Hong Kong store. The store opened up with a quote for 1-2 week shipping times, which was substantially longer than the 24 hour shipping times seen in countries such as Australia. Overall, at least in the United States and Europe, iPad Air supplies are expected to be plentiful.

Creepy.

[via M.I.C. Gadget]

Reader Dan just sent us some pictures of the iconic Shanghai Apple Store that is currently being cleaned up due to a pretty significant flood.

Big flood in their flagship Shanghai, China store located in the Pudong district of Shanghai.…unfortunately, they were not allowing the public to take pictures so i wasn’t able “sneak in” too many pictures but i’ve attached a short video and couple pics.

When i arrived they had already blocked off the area where it was flooding and tried to control it by putting bins underneath to catch the water.  They covered surrounding iPads/Macs with plastic cover.  Unclear as to how much damage occurred.

It is not the kind of damage that comes from a drive through smash-and-grab, but it will take some time to clean up this mess. Thanks Dan!

Related articles

• Apple first retail store comes to Stockholm, Sweden
• Australia’s capital, Canberra, gets itself an Apple Store this week (+Perth gets another one)

Apple recently unveiled Germany’s ninth Apple Store on its website (translated). The latest shop will open Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. in Cologne’s Rhein-Center shopping mall. It is located on the top floor next to Zara and across from Lush. According to German news blog iFun (translated), those who wait in line to gain entrance will receive a limited number of T-shirts.

In related news, Apple’s signage now covers a second spot in Hong Kong. The gray, simple look indicates a new retail store is coming to the Festival Walk mall in the Kowloon Tong area, according to Engadget China (translated), which also posted a few pictures, as seen below. The report said the store could open in September, but the date is not confirmed.

Update: Now official

While not official from Apple, the store that was previously rumored to be an Apple Store in Stockholm’s Taby C mall appears pretty likely to be an Apple Store. The run-up to this day has been long for Swedish Apple users. The local MacWorld.se says doors should open around Oct. 25, which is just in time for iPad Minis and the holidays. Watch out IKEA!

https://twitter.com/digitrendSE/status/240026380824346624

Perhaps most disappointing about this whole thing: Malls in Sweden look exactly like malls here in the United States. :(