Smartphones: Apple opens first Hong Kong store

HONG KONG: Apple threw open the doors to its first store in Hong Kong on Saturday, its latest push to tap the booming China market, as protesters accused the technology giant of supporting sweatshop labour. The minimalist store spread over two floors in one of Hong Kong’s most up market shopping malls is Apple’s sixth outlet in China, launching just a day after the doors opened on another new branch in Shanghai. Apple’s second quarter revenue in greater China — which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan — reached $3.8 billion, a six-fold rise on the same period a year earlier, making the region a key driver of the company’s record results. A queue of more than a thousand people snaked along an overpass near Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, with some people waiting since Friday to be among the first inside on Saturday. Previously, Apple products were available in Hong Kong through registered dealers and online, but the opening Saturday marked the first branded Apple store in the southern Chinese territory.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2011.