Tim Cook is continuing something of a whirlwind tour of Asia, after beginning the trip in Japan earlier in the week. From there he headed to Singapore and is currently in Thailand…
Two days ahead of the opening of the first Apple Store in Singapore, the company has provided a press preview of the interior.
One notably missing feature is the glass staircase which has traditionally been a signature design element of Apple’s retail stores. There is instead what is being reported as a stone staircase but may be a ceramic one. This design was first seen in the Nanjing store in China, and appears to be destined for the refitted 5th Avenue store in NY too …
Apple has removed the vinyl window coverings from its first retail store in Singapore, revealing the interior for the first time.
Straits Times reports that the ground floor is used to display both main products and accessories, while the focus of the upper floor is on space for the company’s Today at Apple creative sessions …
Apple’s first retail store in Singapore has been partially unveiled, providing the first official confirmation of the long-rumored Orchard Road location.
It was back in 2015 that Apple confirmed that it was opening a store on the island. At that point, the location wasn’t known, though there were strong signs pointing to the location on Orchard Road, the main upmarket retail area in the country …
After an initial Amex-only launch last month, Apple Pay is seeing a full roll-out today in Singapore, with Visa, MasterCard and five major banks on board. This makes Singapore the sixth country to get Apple Pay, after the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and China.
Apple Pay vice-president Jennifer Bailey told The Straits Times: “Now, almost everyone can leave their wallets at home. Apple Pay will be a natural extension of what users have been doing at payment counters” […]
Citibank, HSBC, ANZ and Maybank still do not work with Apple Pay [but] Ms Bailey said Apple is working to bring more banks on board.
Singapore was a good target for Apple, as contactless payment is already extremely well-established in the country …
Apple Pay is now available in yet another country. Apple today has updated its website and Apple Pay support page to reveal that the service is now available in Singapore. Through a partnership with American Express, users in Singapore can now take advantage of the company’s mobile payments solution.
While retail head Angela Ahrendts last year confirmed an earlier report that the company would be opening its first Apple Store in Singapore, she didn’t reveal the location. The address had, though, been reported as 170 Orchard Road in an email from a fitness company advising that its branch there would be closing to make way for a new Apple Store.
Photos posted by iPhone Hacks appear to show work underway at the address as the windows are covered. While there’s still no definitive evidence that this is the location, it looks like we may not have to wait too much longer before we find out.
Apple announced last year that solar energy will power all of the company’s operations in Singapore, including the new store.
Apple has announced that it will power all of its operations in Singapore from solar energy, the first company in the city-state to do so. The scheme will also provide electricity to around 9,000 public-owned homes.
CNET reports that Apple is partnering with local clean energy provide Sunseap.
The Cupertino consumer electronics giant has partnered with Singapore’s largest clean energy provider, Sunseap Group, who will provide power to Apple’s 2,500-person corporate campus and retail store. Energy will be obtained from solar panels laid on the rooftops of 800 buildings.
Retail head Angela Ahrendts also confirmed to The Strait Times earlier reports that it is opening its first Apple Store in Singapore, with hiring underway …
On its earnings call, Apple has announced a further expansion of Apple Pay in partnership with American Express, to Australia and Canada in 2015 as well as Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong next year in 2016. Exact details are still murky — Tim Cook very specifically said ‘eligible American Express customers in these regions’ so it isn’t going to be as big as a rollout for Apple Pay as we saw for the US or UK.
Pure Fitness has sent an email to its customers reporting that its branch at 170 Orchard Road in Singapore will be closing at the end of the year to make way for a new Apple Store set to open in late 2016, reports TechInAsia.
Pure and other tenants will be handing back space to make way for the opening of a new Apple store in late 2016.
It made the same statement in a later press release. While this is an unconfirmed report, the location would make sense …
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The Apple Watch, originally launched in nine countries, hits seven more today – with a further rollout on July 17th. Apple has so far added the July 17th date to its websites in the Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand.
The countries going live today include Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan …
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Apple has notified Apple Maps Connect for Small Businesses users that the service has expanded beyond the United States into the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Singapore. As we detailed in October of last year, Apple Maps Connect is a web-based tool for businesses to either add or edit their listings to the Apple Maps database. The site is also used to bolster Apple’s indoor mapping data for future iOS Maps features. Thanks, Matt!
Apple is about to roll out its Volume Purchase Program, which allows business and education customers to purchase and distribute iOS apps in bulk for deployed devices, into 16 new countries. Apple’s website for both the Volume Purchase Program for Business and for Education have been updated to announce the expansion and now list the following countries as coming soon to the program:
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Ahead of the iPhone 5s launch tomorrow morning in Apple Stores around the world at 8AM local time, Apple appears to be preparing for online orders with its websites for China, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore currently experiencing downtime. Orders from Apple’s online store are about to kick off in the coming hours in Australia, while China and Hong Kong opened up reservations for the device earlier this week and also plan 8am retail launches. In the U.S. and most other countries online orders will start at 12am (PST in the US) and local time in other locations. Word has it the iPhone 5s will be in short supply at launch, but it’s taken Apple’s iPhone 5c over a week before experiencing any significant shipping delays.
Shipping times for certain models of the iPhone 5c began slipping over the last week, but most models in the initial launch countries remained available for delivery by the expected September 20 launch date. Today that has started to change with many more models of the iPhone 5c experiencing delays in several countries.
In the U.S. and Canada, all models of the device are currently listed as shipping in 1-3 business days, while France and Germany are now listing “5 working days” for most models and “7-10 working days” for others. Of course, shipping times could easily change again tomorrow when the iPhone 5c officially hits Apple retail stores alongside the 5s. We’ll keep you updated if they do.
Current ordering options for Indonesian customers on www.apple.com/id
Apple plans to create an online retail presence in Indonesia, according to a report from NZWeek (via TNW), as well as open its first retail location in the country with a new store in the capital city, Jakarta. Confirmation of the investment comes from the country’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). It has approved Apple’s application to open up shop in the country, and the report claimed Apple is looking to invest $2 million to $3 million USD in the capital city of Jakarta to open its first brick-and-mortar retail location.
[tweet https://twitter.com/marioyohanes/status/292821729573756928]
Just last month, Apple started selling the iPhone 5 in close to 50 new countries including Indonesia. The country also started receiving access to iTunes music and movies last month with the rollout of the service to 56 new countries.
As noted in the report, Foxconn is investing $10 billion USD to open a new hardware manufacturing plant in Indonesia with construction slated to kick off this year. TNW pointed out that Apple actually sold products in Indonesia from 2008 to 2010 before stopping due to difficulties with shipping out of Singapore.
iPad mini window display from NorthStar Mall, San Antonio (via <a href="https://twitter.com/alanweinkrantz/status/264338171469369344">@alanweinkrantz</a>)
iPad mini officially went on sale at 8 a.m. this morning and reports are already starting to flow in that many Apple Stores have sold out of initial stock. Topeka Capital’s Brian White released a note to clients this morning (via BusinessInsider) that noted all models of iPad mini sold out in just over two hours at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue New York City store. Before today’s launch, shipment dates for Apple’s online pre-orders of the device had been pushed back, while shipment dates for pre-ordered LTE models of the device were recently removed.
Now reports indicate stores in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, and many other states from Alabama to Hawaii have sold out of initial supplies.
[tweet https://twitter.com/madfruitstand/status/264374161076523008]
It’s unclear just how much stock Apple had delivered to its various stores and resellers, but we noted earlier today that lines were much smaller than usual at many locations. The lines were most likely due to the fact today’s launch included just the Wi-Fi-only model, but it looks like Apple is still not able to meet demand in many locations. Some stores were rumored to get about 100 units, as noted in the tweet above, while we heard bigger stores received as many as 300.
It’s also not yet clear if supply of the new iPad mini will be held back by similar manufacturing troubles and supply constraints of which Apple is now experiencing with iPhone 5 and the new iMacs leading into the holidays.
Judging by the collection of tweets that we put together below, Apple is quickly selling out of initial iPad mini stock in many locations around the globe. Most stores are not expecting additional shipments today:
[tweet https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/222411178842918912]
A few apps and updates hit the App Store today, unfortunately some are still reporting issues with apps not launching after updates. Let us know if you run into any issues in the comments.
eBay version 2.6.0: ebay’s main iPhone app received an update today alongside a small update to the eBay for iPad app. Unfortunately, eBay has now posted warning on at least the eBay for iPad release notes that some have reported the app is not working. As for the iPhone app, version 2.6.0 includes the following features and fixes:
• Improved selling flow
• Landscape support for easy typing of eBay item descriptions
• Faster bidding experience
• Check auto parts for compatibility before you buy
• Ability to search for items in My eBay
• Add and remove your Favorite Sellers
• Filter Feedback for buyers and sellers
• Payment support for Singapore and Malaysia
• More UI, stability and performance improvements
TED Books: TED, the people behind the TED conferences that are later made available online as TED Talks, released a free app today, which offers paid subscriptions to “Ted Books.” The books are produced every two weeks and “are typically under 20,000 words. They also consist of audio, video, and built-in social features. Subscriptions cost $15 for three months or $2.99 per book for non-subscribers.
InstaTalks: Recently released on the App Store, InstaTalks is a third-party messenger built for Instagram that allows you to exchange private messages and photos with Instagram users. There is no registration required (just an Instagram account), and the app is available for free now.
NBA Summer League: NBA Digital just dropped the official Summer League app, while the NBA Game Time app has also been updated with live video and scoring content for Summer League games.
Update: The stores appear to be back online now, and while the China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand stores have access to Red Friday deals, the others don’t. As for discounts, most products, including iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs appear to be on sale for in between 5% and 10% off. For everyone else, 9to5 readers can still get some of the best prices on Macs in the U.S. through our discount code at MacMall.
While we have not confirmed the exact reason, it looks like around 13 Apple online stores worldwide are currently down. Among them: China, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
There is a good possibility Apple is updating these websites to reflect the ‘Year of the Dragon’ Jan. 6 Red Friday shopping event that is expected to land in China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and possibly the other countries with online stores currently down. We will keep you posted if we notice any changes when they come back online.
Following up on Lucky Bags that were handed out to Japanese Apple customers this weekend, Apple is also celebrating the Lunar New Year with a one day Apple shopping event, dubbed “Red Friday” on Friday, Jan. 6 in China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. In the past, Apple has given modest discounts to its products for the Lunar New Year.
The Lunar New Year celebration starts on Monday, Jan. 23.