Tag: Apple

  • CEO Tim Cook Confirms First Store In Turkey Amidst Big International Retail Push

    CEO Tim Cook Confirms First Store In Turkey Amidst Big International Retail Push

    Toward the end of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s keynote appearance today at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, he dedicated a good-sized monologue to the state of Apple’s retail operation, where he confirmed a new store in Turkey and more international growth; he noted that stores have become so important in their communities that you can’t really call them stores anymore; and (joked?) that walking into one is akin to taking a Prozac.

    Apple retail stores, he said, have gone beyond being sales hubs. A store “acts as a gathering place, which has an important role in the community” for youth groups, musicians and more. “I’m not even sure if ‘store’ is the right word any more,” he said. “They have taken on a much bigger role. They are the face of Apple. People don’t think about the Cupertino headquarters; they think of the Apple store.”

    This is a message that’s important for Cook to get across, considering that last quarter, Q1 2013, the stores saw only an incremental increase in revenue per store compared to a year ago — $1.25 million per week compared to $1.22 million in Q1 2012. Overall, the stores pulled in $6.44 billion for the quarter. Cook noted that the average Apple store last year made over $50 million in revenue.

    The message also comes on the same day that Apple lost out to Amazon as the most reputable brand in the U.S., according to a Harris poll out today. Part of the criteria polled included consumers’ perception of trust at the companies. Amazon, of course, is an online brand, while Apple offers a retail experience both online and offline.

    Cook also noted that in the last quarter, the stores have seen some 120 million people pass through them, “almost 10 million people per week.” So many, in fact, that about 20 of Apple’s stores are being closed down and enlarged. “This is like the issue around cash. [Apple has $137 billion at the moment and is being pressured by shareholders to give up some more of it.] It’s a privilege to have this kind of issue.”

    Cook noted that Apple will add 30 stores, “disproportionately outside the U.S.” In addition to adding “lots more” stores in China, he also confirmed that Apple will open its first store in Turkey this year. Apple had been hiring in both Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul but had only confirmed the Brazilian retail operation. “We still have a long way to go,” Cook said of the company’s plans to add more countries to its list. “We’ll never be in every one of them.”

    Again, going back to the marketing role that the stores play for Apple (and again taking focus away from hard sales), he emphasized how important they are for launching new products. “One of the things that’s not understood that well about the stores is that I don’t think we would have been nearly as successful in the iPad as an example if it weren’t for our stores,” said Cook. He noted that people’s view of the tablet, prior to the iPad, “ingrained in their minds [was] a heavy thing that no one wanted.”

    “I don’t think it would have been nearly as successful without stores welcoming people at [a rate of] 10 million a week” to try them out… It gives Apple an incredible competitive advantage.”

    Because of that, “We’re going to continue to invest like crazy in them.”

    His waxing lyrical on the stores took a slightly surreal turn towards the end. “I don’t have very many bad days,” he said, “but if I ever feel like I’m dropping down from an excited level, I go into a store. It’s like a Prozac or something!”

    [Image: Flickr]

    Tags: Tim Cook, apple

    via CEO Tim Cook Confirms First Store In Turkey Amidst Big International Retail Push | TechCrunch.

  • iTunes Music Store reportedly live in Russia, Turkey and South Africa [ux2]

    iTunes Music Store reportedly live in Russia, Turkey and South Africa [ux2]

    iTunes Music Store reportedly live in Russia, Turkey and South Africa [ux2]

    By AppleInsider Staff

    12.12.03 iTunes TurkeyJust hours after invitations for an expected iTunes media event were sent out to select media outlets on Monday, a number of users in Russia and Turkey are reporting that Apple’s online media store is now live in those countries.

    Update: iPhone Türkiye has confirmed to AppleInsider that both music and video are available for purchase through the iTunes store in Turkey.

    Update 2: It appears that South Africa will also be getting the iTunes Music Store, according to Apple’s website, however it is unclear when content will be available.

    iTunes Russia Turkey

    Availability of iTunes by country as seen in the iTunes OS X app. | Source: Apple

    Reports from Russia and Turkey claim that the iTunes Music Store has gone live for some users, with the news coming a day before Apple will be “holding a musical evening” in Moscow.

    While rumors of a Russian iTunes Store have persisted for years, Apple has yet to launch the media marketplace. Turkey is also on the list of countries without iTunes, however identical reports say that the store is now open ahead of an official announcement.

    Turkish Apple blog iPhone Türkiye was able to make multiple song purchases from the iTunes app running on a new iPhone 5, including tracks from local musician Sezen Aksu.

    iTunes Turkey

    iTunes Turkey. | Source: iPhone Türkiye

    Russian Twitter user “iMaxim” confirmed that iTunes is available for the iPad as well, though it appears that only the categories “Top Charts,” “Genius” and “Purchased” are available at this time.

    iTunes Russia

    iTunes Russia as seen on Apple’s iPad. | Source: iMaxim via Twitter

    At the end of 2011, Apple finished rolling out the iTunes Store to all countries in the European Union some eight years after the world’s No.1 music store first launched in the U.S.

    via iTunes Music Store reportedly live in Russia, Turkey and South Africa [ux2].

  • Apple confirms first Brazilian store opening; also hiring in Istanbul

    Apple confirms first Brazilian store opening; also hiring in Istanbul

    by Steven Sande Nov 14th 2012 at 1:00PM

    Apple’s ambitious plans to open more retail stores around the world are in full gear. The company emailed a few Brazilian tech news sites with confirmation that the company will be opening a store in Rio de Janeiro soon, the first Apple Store in Brazil.

    Rio will also be hosting crowds in the next few years both for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic games, making an Apple Store a popular draw for visitors from around the world. Brazil isn’t the only new country that’s joining the Apple fold — Istanbul, Turkey will soon be home to an Apple Store as well.

    Apple’s financial disclosures indicated that the company plans to open up to 35 new stores during the next 12 months, with 75 percent of the new construction occurring outside of the United States.

    [via 9to5Mac]

    via Apple confirms first Brazilian store opening; also hiring in Istanbul | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

  • President of Turkey visits Tim Cook, discusses bringing technology into Turkish education

    President of Turkey visits Tim Cook, discusses bringing technology into Turkish education

    The President of Turkey, Abdullah Gül (pictured right, on left), recently visited Apple’s California HQ and met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to Turkish-based Anatolia News Agency. The Turkish President was in the United States to promote Turkey in a bid to be the host for the 2020 Olympic Games as well as visit some of the biggest technology companies in the valley including Google where he tried on Google Glasses and drove in the driverless car.

    On a subject very close to Apple’s motives and beliefs, the President discussed a new technology in education project with Cook. This is an important subject for Apple with the company’s recent push of the iPad and iBooks into education. On the note of iPad usage, the Turkish President expressed concern with the Turkish character input. Cook said he was unaware of the issue, but he said he would take care of it.

    Also, it sounds like there might be some Apple Stores in Turkey’s future as well.

    via President of Turkey visits Tim Cook, discusses bringing technology into Turkish education | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence.

  • Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies

    Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies

    By Brandon Griggs, CNN
    October 6, 2011 — Updated 0312 GMT (1112 HKT)
    Click to play
    110910120835 steve jobs san francisco 06 06 11 story top
    Apple’s passionate pitchman

    STORY HIGHLIGHTS
    • Jobs had battled cancer for years
    • Jobs founded Apple when he was 21
    • He developed the concept of the personal computer and mouse
    • He oversaw the launch of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad

    (CNN) — Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world’s leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.

    The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet — all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.

    Fortune: Ten ways Steve Jobs changed the world

    His friends and Apple fans on Wednesday night mourned the passing of a tech titan.

    “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” Apple said in a statement. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

    See reactions from Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many others

    More than one pundit, praising Jobs’ ability to transform entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci.

    “Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism,” New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. “His intuition has been phenomenal over the years.”

    Jobs’ death, while dreaded by Apple’s legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could “no longer meet (his) duties and expectations.”

    Born February 24, 1955, and then adopted, Jobs grew up in Cupertino, California — which would become home to Apple’s headquarters — and showed an early interest in electronics. As a teenager, he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project. He got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP.

    Jobs dropped out of Oregon’s Reed College after one semester, although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple’s graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.

    “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. “You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

    View a time line of Steve Jobs’ work

    While at HP, Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak, who impressed him with his skill at assembling electronic components. The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer hobbyists club, and when he was 21, Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two other men to launch Apple Computer Inc.

    It’s long been Silicon Valley legend: Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product, the Apple 1, in Jobs’ parents’ garage in 1976. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van to help finance the venture. The primitive computer, priced at $666.66, had no keyboard or display, and customers had to assemble it themselves.

    The following year, Apple unveiled the Apple II computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire. The machine was a hit, and the personal computing revolution was under way.

    Jobs was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the mouse and the graphical interface, which let users operate computers by clicking on images instead of writing text.

    Apple’s pioneering Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic, Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad. The boxy beige Macintosh sold well, but the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues, and in 1986, he was ousted from Apple after a power struggle.

    Then came a 10-year hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer, whose pricey, cube-shaped computer workstations never caught on with consumers.

    Jobs had more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas before the company made it big with “Toy Story.” Jobs brought the same marketing skill to Pixar that he became known for at Apple. His brief but emotional pitch for “Finding Nemo,” for example, was a masterful bit of succinct storytelling.

    Share your memories and images of Steve Jobs

    In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded. Within a year, he was running Apple again — older and perhaps wiser but no less of a perfectionist. And in 2001, he took the stage to introduce the original iPod, the little white device that transformed portable music and kick-started Apple’s furious comeback.

    Thus began one of the most remarkable second acts in the history of business. Over the next decade, Jobs wowed launch-event audiences, and consumers, with one game-changing hit after another: iTunes (2003), the iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008), and the iPad (2010).

    Review Jobs’ top moments as a showman

    Observers marveled at Jobs’ skills as a pitchman, his ability to inspire godlike devotion among Apple “fanboys” (and scorn from PC fans) and his “one more thing” surprise announcements. Time after time, he sold people on a product they didn’t know they needed until he invented it. And all this on an official annual salary of $1.

    He also built a reputation as a hard-driving, mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost every detail of Apple’s products and rejected prototypes that didn’t meet his exacting standards.

    By the late 2000s, his once-renegade tech company, the David to Microsoft’s Goliath, was entrenched at the uppermost tier of American business. Apple now operates more than 300 retail stores in 11 countries. The company has sold more than 275 million iPods, 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide.

    Jobs’ climb to the top was complete in summer 2011, when Apple listed more cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable company.

    CNNMoney.com: Apple stock under Jobs

    But Jobs’ health problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company’s success. In 2004, he announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches to Apple developers, spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations in the company’s stock price. One wire service accidentally published Jobs’ obituary.

    Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple. He took another medical leave in January this year. Perhaps mindful of his legacy, he cooperated on his first authorized biography, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in November.

    Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and four children, including one from a prior relationship.

    He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple.

    “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do,” he told the Stanford grads in 2005.

    “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”

    CNN’s Augie Martin contributed to this report.

  • Apple trying to eliminate Turkish partner, daily claims

    Apple trying to eliminate Turkish partner, daily claims

    ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

    ipadU.S.-based technology giant Apple is looking to break its relations with Bilkom, a local Turkish partner, daily Milliyet reported Friday.

    Apple founded an Istanbul-based company under the name of “Apple Technology,” in May, Milliyet said, adding that the company was managed by Apple Europe.

    The executives of Koç Holding, Bilkom’s parent company, announced that the new company would act in concert with Bilkom, Milliyet said.

    But the fact that iPad, one of Apple’s most prominent recent products, is still not distributed in Turkey raises question on the relations between the two companies, it said.

    The reason for the delay is Apple’s efforts to eliminate Bilkom, the paper said.

    Koç Holding had said the new Apple branch in Turkey would aim to speed up the operations in the fast-growing local market.

    The record-breaking iPad is not officially sold in Turkey despite having been on the market for seven months in other countries.