In what was termed by US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson as a landmark of American investors’ confidence in Pakistan, an Apple Computers store has been launched in Lahore, Pakistan.
It’s not an official Apple retail store, but rather a partnership between Apple and Pakistani company Raffles Systems. The store is intuitively named iRaffle (unfortunately, I don’t think they actually raffle off free iPods or Macs).
Sure, the name is exceptionally lame, but it’s a good start toward spreading our beloved Apple products into the Middle East / Central Asia, which will in turn support democratization and open politics in those regions (or not).
Check your geography. Pakistan is in Central Asia, not the Middle East. However, Central Asia could use some help towards democratization and open politics too!
@Tom: I did check my geography, actually. There's no standard definition as to what constitutes "Central Asia" or "The Middle East". Pakistan is right on the edge of both regions (Southern Pakistan being in what is generally considered the Middle East, and Northern Pakistan being in Central Asia) and so it's generally fair game. But to quote Wikipedia:
"One widely used definition of the "Middle East" is that of the airline industry, maintained by the IATA standards organization. This definition - as of early 2007 - includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.[10] This definition is used in world-wide airfare and tax calculations for passengers and cargo."
I'm no geography expert, but I think it's safe to play it by the IATA standards. Yes, this is a debatable and contentious topic, and I knew I'd have all of 30 minutes before somebody claimed Pakistan is in Central Asia. Maybe I'll change it just to prevent this from becoming a debate.
- David
Doesn't matter if Apple's opening a store in Pakistan.
Majority of Pakistanis are too poor to afford Macs anyway.