We’ve been tracking the progress of Apple’s first store in China, which is due to open in a few short days, for a while. Apple today gave a preview of the store to journalists and others, letting them wander around the the Beijing store and see what there is to see.
The first retail outlet in China is located in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district, about 3.5 miles from Tiananmen Square—another site in the Qianmen neighborhood closer to Tiananmen Square is due to host a separate store in the future; Apple VP for retail, Ron Johnson, confirmed that further stores would be opening elsewhere in China, such as Shanghai. The first Beijing store will have two levels and offer Genius Bar support in Chinese and English, along with some support in other languages like German when it opens at 10AM on the 19th.
There’s one thing you won’t find in the Beijing Apple Store, however, and that’s the iPhone. Despite the fact that the iPhone 3G has gone on sale in China’s two special administrative districts, Hong Kong and Macau, the mainland remains the largest remaining untapped market for the phone. Apple has been in negotiation with China’s largest mobile provider, China Mobile, but those talks have yet to result in a definitive detail, perhaps in part because of technical limitations.
"Apple has begin in negotiation"
Translated from Chinese?
Darn, I was in Beijing 2 weeks too early.