Opening of the first Apple Store in Hangzhou
Apple opened its first retail store in Hangzhou, China back in January, and now the company has announced plans for a second. Apple says the store will be located at 701 Fuchun Road in the Jianggan District. The store will open at 9:00AM local time on April 24th, which also happens to be launch day for the Apple Watch.
Apple may be revamping its storefronts to promote the Apple Watch, but it won’t be encouraging you to buy one there. Retail head Angela Ahrendts has sent a memo to Apple Store staff asking them to suggest customers use the online store to order both the Apple Watch and 12-inch MacBook. The memo reportedly reflects the fact that store inventory of both products will be very limited when the MacBook goes on sale on Friday and the Apple Watch follows two weeks later.
Ahrendts’ two-paragraph memo aims to put a positive spin on the fact that many customers are likely to be disappointed when trying to purchase the new products, suggesting that pointing them to online purchase will “make their day” …
Expand
Expanding
Close
German Apple Stores have dropped Vodafone and O2 contracts for both iPhones and iPads, offering them only with Deutsche Telekom contracts or SIM-free. The change affects only post-paid contracts: pre-paid SIMs remain available on Vodafone.
Expand
Expanding
Close
With just over a week before Apple Watch previews and reservations kick off in Apple retail and online stores, there are a few things to keep in mind if you’re planning on purchasing the device in the early weeks of availability.
Apple is making big changes to its retail sales process with a completely new approach to in-store demos for what is the company’s first product to cross over into the fashion world. There has been a lot of news surrounding Apple’s reservation and in-store sales experience for Apple Watch, so we’ve put together a concise list of FAQ’s for everything you’ll want to know for launch this month.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Today’s the day: Apple is holding its “Spring Forward” event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. This article contains the latest updates from the event in live blog style; all of our detailed individual stories from the event are now summarized at this link. The event officially began at 10 AM Pacific/ 1PM Eastern time, and our live coverage is below.
Apple is working to step up the secrecy surrounding future iPhone and iPad models by targeting a frequent source of leaks: third-party accessory makers. 9to5Mac has learned that in fall 2014, just before the iPhone 6 launched, Apple demanded that a number of leading accessory makers sign agreements barring them from seeking out information about future Apple devices, according to four sources with first-hand knowledge of the matter.
On one hand, the agreement dangled the loss of “future business opportunities that Apple and/or its affiliates may present to you” as a potential consequence of violating or not signing the agreement. On the other hand, signing and following it could lead to months-long delays in making accessories like cases available, during the time of year when those cases were most needed and demanded by customers.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The Apple Watch isn’t shipping by Valentine’s Day— a date that many speculated could make an ideal launch date– and there won’t be an event this month showcasing Apple’s new device ahead of preorders, but that’s not stopping anyone from using the Apple Watch as prime marketing material.
European department store chain Cora has chosen Apple Watch to grace the cover of its latest flyer this month hyping a February 14th date “subject to availability,” even though the Watch is on track to be released sometime in April, according to the latest from Apple CEO Tim Cook.
While we’ll have to wait and see who is more in the know on this matter (joking!), the September unveiling of the Apple Watch has spawned a new market of cheap knock offs and even promised competition from legacy watch industry insiders.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The Apple Store in Hangzhou, China that was initially believed to be opening late last year finally has an official date.
The Westlake store, as it’s being called by Apple, will open on Saturday, January 24th at 9 AM local time. While many Apple Stores are named after the city or street where they’re located, the Westlake store is named after a popular lake located in the city.
In recent months, Apple’s new retail chief has expressed her desire to push further into the Chinese market along with expanding the company’s global retail footprint.
Following the launch of Apple’s “Start Something New” campaign on its website featuring artwork created on Mac and iOS devices, Apple is now transforming its retail stores into temporary art galleries showcasing art from the campaign.
Expand
Expanding
Close
McDonald’s is testing Bluetooth beacon-based offers in at least some of its locations as it pilots beacon platform Piper that works with both iOS devices using Apple’s iBeacon framework and other mobile devices.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Near the end of each year Apple thanks its employees for their hard work with a nice souvenir. This year some employees are being given a black Incase backpack featuring a bright white Apple logo.
At least one employee has already put the gift up on eBay with a starting bid of $49.99 and a Buy It Now of $99.99. From the images we’ve received, it appears that the bag is a customized version of the Incase Staple Backpack. In past years, Apple employees have received blankets, sweatshirts, and water bottles.
The bags were accompanied by this letter:
Apple has updated its online store to start accepting PayPal as a payment method in both the United States and United Kingdom. PayPal was already an option for those who shopped through the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore, but this is the first time the company has offered it through the Apple Online Store.
Earier this year Bose and Apple had a bit of a falling out when the former decided to block NFL players from wearing Beats headphones while on camera, then fined players who violated the rule. Beats Electronics co-founder Jimmy Iovine said at the time that the ban actually served Beats by providing a bit of free publicity.
Apple apparently didn’t agree, and retaliated by pulling all Bose products from its store shelves in October. Around that time the two companies were also duking it out in a patent lawsuit, though they eventually decided to settle.
But Bose products are reportedly headed back to Apple Store shelves…
(RED) Apple Store logo
As it continues to expand its global reach through its retail stores, Apple has begun recruiting for Apple Store-specific positions in Brussels through job listings posted online. As MacGeneration points out, the upcoming Apple Store opening in the capital city will mark Apple’s first retail location in Belgium.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Like it did last year, Apple’s participation in this year’s Worlds AIDS Day will include changing the iconic glowing white Apple logo that hangs outside its retail stores to red in order to raise awareness for the fight against AIDS. The new red Apple signage is already up at Apple’s Australian stores (pictured above) as we roll into Dec. 1 local time.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Here’s an interesting tidbit that comes from a Fortune interview with Moleskine CEO Arrigo Berni: apparently the company’s physical retail stores do a lot better when they’re in close proximity to an Apple Store.
“Interestingly, we find that we do better whenever we are closest to an Apple retail store. This may come as a surprise, but it makes perfect sense when one considers that the profile of a Moleskine user is very similar to that of an Apple user.”
It seems Microsoft isn’t the only one who wants to put its stores near Apple’s.
If you’re a retailer, you have two options when it comes to deploying Bluetooth beacons. You can deploy the hardware yourself and build an accompanying mobile app for the experience, or you can open the experience to existing apps that users already have on their device using a beacon network. Some retailers have decided they want to own the experience and have everything go through their own mobile app, but new data suggests that might not be the way to go.
Expand
Expanding
Close
For Black Friday, Apple has refreshed the frontpage of its online store with a rather-drastic redesign. Each product category now dominates the webpage, with full-bleed images of their main product lines. The new iPad updates get the top spot, but interestingly Apple TV and Beats headphones also get prime placement. In fact, the product images for Beats accessories are so large, it only takes four images to dominate the screen.
The strap-line ‘From one gift come many’ headlines the page, which also links up with Apple’s upcoming retail store holiday changes. The same tagline will soon be featured in Apple Store windows around the world, highlighting the wide scope of the iPhone and iPad, as shown below.
The NYT reports that Rite Aid has joined CVS in disabling Apple Pay as a payment method in its stores. Like CVS, Rite Aid is a member of the Merchant Customer eXchange (MCX) consortium promoting a rival mobile payment service, CurrentC.
Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Bose headphones and audio products could soon get the boot from Apple retail stores, according to a report from MacRumors citing “a reliable source.”
While Apple’s acquisition of Beats would seem like the obvious reason behind replacing the many Bose headphones and speakers currently used with iOS and Mac demo units, the report also claims that Apple will be removing Bose products from store shelves in addition to the demo units.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple is opening three new retail stores this weekend including one new store near Venice, Italy and two stores in the US.
We originally reported in June that the new stores were coming alongside others in China, Italy and the US as new retail chief Angela Ahrendts implements organizational restructuring for Apple retail.
Apple has now announced the upcoming grand openings on its website for three of the stores opening this Saturday. The new Italy store is located in the Centro commerciale Nave de Vero shopping centre in Marghera near Venice (via setteBIT).
Also opening this Saturday are two new stores in the US including one in Trumbull, Connecticut and another at Solomond Pond Mall in Marlborough, Massachusetts (via ifostore). All three of new stores will open at 10am local time this Saturday, October 11.
In addition to Trumbull and Marlborough, we reported in June that Apple also had also started hiring for new stores planned for Virginia Beach (Virginia) and Manchester (New Hampshire).
Middle East luxury lifestyle magazine Edgar claims “insider knowledge” that the planned Apple Store in the United Arab Emirates will be the largest in the world, and will be located in a huge shopping mall in Dubai.
US-based tech giant Apple will open its biggest store in the world at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, EDGAR can exclusively reveal […] Our undisclosed source said that the store – which will be the biggest Apple has ever built – was originally planned to replace the current cinema complex …
Following the recent hire of a former Burberry and Nike social marketing executive to run Apple’s new social media arm, a few job listings on Apple’s website point to an attempt to bolster the company’s retail marketing team. A few of the positions were outlined by ifo Apple Store earlier today and seem to point toward an increased focus on building and maintaining customer loyalty to the Apple brand.
We’ve heard time and again that Apple customers, particularly iPhone users, are among the most loyal, but it seems Apple believes there’s still more to be done in that department. One of these new job listings calls for a “Program Manager — Loyalty, Global Retail Marketing,” which would focus on creating “learning and services strategies” designed to inspire loyalty among Apple’s user base.
Image <a href="https://twitter.com/darth/status/497151434924638208" target="_blank">via @darth</a>
Microsoft wants to build a new 8,700 sq. ft. retail store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, just a few blocks away from Apple’s cube, the New York Daily News reported today. The two-story building located at 677 Fifth Avenue is currently vacant, but the Redmond-based software giant wants to setup shop near one of its competitors most iconic locations.
Microsoft has been walking in the shadow of Apple’s retail success for years now. In 2009 the company poached George Blakenship from Cupertino’s retail arm to run its own (weirdly similar) stores. Since then, the Microsoft has been taking advantage of open spaces near a few Apple stores to try to get in on the action.
