There are Apple Stores around the world, and in parts of the world with no Apple Stores, Apple tends to allow for authorized resellers which will carry Apple products and offer similar services to its customers. One such country that only has authorized resellers is South Korea, and it seems that they are not too happy about it.
According to reports from the South Korean media, they have lambasted Apple for not opening an official flagship store in their country. They pointed that it was unfair that countries such as China who have about 15 stores, will be getting an additional 25. They also pointed out that even countries such as Zimbabwe had an official Apple Store of their own.
The media goes on to quote an insider who claims that the reason Apple has not opened a store in South Korea is because “the Apple headquarters applies very strict requirements to Apple Store candidates. According to the [Apple] marketing division, an Apple Store has to be set up in a very busy street with as much floating population as in Gangnam and Myeongdong. But the rent should be low, and such a place is hard to come by in Korea.”
It is unclear as to how true that insider information is, especially given that in Japan, Apple has opened a store on Omotesando Street which is known to be an upscale area in which many luxury brands have opened their stores, so safe to say rent in that area will not be cheap. A recent report has revealed that Apple has managed to sell over 100,000 units of their new smartphones in the country, but what do you guys think? Does it matter if a country has their own Apple Store, or not?
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