There's no denying Apple's retail shops work, they make money (a lot) and they provide a service (a great one).. but boy oh boy is their retail strategy outside the US and the UK a slow one. They opened their first retail Apple store in 2001 and it was an immediate success, and yet still in Febuary 2007 the only counrty in the whole of Europe that has a store is England, I just sit and think about that sometimes, and I just kind of think; that makes no sense at all.

about bloody time!!!!!!!!

the little "next byte" and "mac center" shops are just useless when it comes to quality consumer information,
but the staff know how to read the back of packages and then give you expert advice

I think NextByte and the various former "AppleCentres" (the right to trade using that name has now been withdrawn because of Apple Australia's foray into retailing) are better than you give them credit for. They often have very enthusiastic, true Mac fans on the staff.

What they do lack is the resources: having demo stock on hand to show every product in the Apple arsenal. (I went about 12 months before even seeing an Apple 30" display.) It's often hard to compare products when they only have a sampling to show, and accessories are similarly limited.

For example, I've found very few places in Sydney where you could just walk in and play around with Aperture on a demo machine, or buy a TuneTalk, or the latest EyeTV, or see everything in the lineup from mini to a Mac Pro. And many smaller stores (Domayne is the worst) keep obsolete products around, and still promote them when brand new ones should be sitting on the shelves (the PowerPC to Intel transition comes to mind: they were still selling iBooks long after the MacBook was out).

And when you are ready to buy a new Mac, it's very annoying to get the "sometime next week" delay because the store keeps little stock on hand and has to order it from Frenchs Forest. One of the big successes of the US and UK Apple Stores is the immediate gratification angle.

These are all things a flagship Apple run store could provide, but the independent stores should still flourish, simply because they cover areas which one or two big Apple Stores will not.

hey guys, i work for city council. The first Apple Store in OZ has just been approved and will occupy the bottom 3 floors of new 77 King st refub cnr George st.
heres some plans/renders





side view. (3m neon apple shown hanging)



NEW render showing atrium and neon apple.

Sweet!

I think maybe some people are underestimating the current "Apple Stores". To be honest, I was surprised to read this article, having bought my iMac from what I thought was an Apple Store, in Joondalup in Western Australia. The shop only sells Apple products, and seems very up-to-date. Clearly, being the most isolated city in the world, we have to wait a while for new products after they're announced, but the staff where I bought it were very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. There's no way I'd ever buy something so precious and knowledge-specific from somewhere like Myer, who have only one goal in mind, and I'd happily support Apple stores like these given such good service. I hope that if we do get a "proper" Apple store in Perth, that either they can coexist happily with the existing stores, or that stores like the Joondalup one who have done the brand a good service in the past are given first dibs on the running of the new store.

cheers,
Ian