Blip: Apple Taiwan opens first retail outfit [updated]

After nearly two and half years of planning a preparations, Apple Computer this past weekend opened its first Taiwan retail store in the capital city of Taipei.

The iPod maker's first large-scale retail location on the island is located in an area of Taipei famous for a large number of consumer electronic stores and has three floors, according to a report at DigiTimes.

The 4,270-square-foot store cost Apple a reported $4.6 million renovations and other fees to set up before it began serving customers on saturday.

Sony will reportedly dish out some competition early next year when it opens "a large retail shop" in a new SOGO department chain store around the vicinity of the new Apple store.

The Sony store will "provide open space for customers to experience using Sony products," DigiTimes cited sources as saying.

Apple's plan to expand its retail presence to Taiwan was reported by the Taiwan Daily News back in August of 2004.

According to that report, Apple's downtown Taipei location is likely to see company from two similar, but smaller franchised shops at a later date.

Update: Once again, DigiTimes' claims have been brought into question. It appears the retail store featured in the publication's report is owned by Apple reseller "Youth" and not Apple Computer.

The DigiTimes story has thus been deemed inaccurate.