According to a report from Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Apple are currently gearing up for the opening of it’s first official retail store in the country. The store is said to cover two floors of the Taipei 101 mall, which is situated in Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper although an opening date for the store still remains unknown.
This intention was confirmed in July last year after a number of job openings appeared on the Apple site and although the exact location was not officially disclosed, it was assumed that the obvious choice would be the capital. Apple’s jobs board at present shows a number of positions for a “Retail Store” within Taiwan. Signs such as this may suggest that the new store will be opened by the end of the year.
The same report suggests that the premium reseller Studio A will be closing its doors this month due to a year-on-year decline in business, particularly over the past 3 months. This has been attributed to a drop in tourism in China but the studio, which is also situated in the mall, have stated that they will continue to improve their repair service in order to compete with the new Apple Store once it has opened.
Although there are already 40 stores in operation throughout the country, Taiwan are the last region in Greater China to have one. Greater China is an incredible source of income for Apple, accounting for $16.2 billion in the most recent quarterly assessment. It is expected that it will soon overtake Europe in terms of revenue gained.
Apple also recently announced the set up of two research centres in China that have cost a total of $507 million and only last month, CEO Tim Cook visited the country to boost relations with the central government and to speak at the China Development Forum where he called for more global trade.