Hasta La Gadget!

China is a very lucrative market and Apple has been working hard to get a bigger piece of the pie. It faces tough competition there, not only from its main rival Samsung, but also from local vendors who make some of the most popular and best selling smartphones in the country. Despite that, China accounted for over 15 percent of Apple’s sales last year. The company has a good momentum going there, and it seeks to further expand its presence in the country by opening its 10th retail store in mainland China tomorrow.

The new brick-and-mortar store opens a few days after Apple formally launched its storefront on Tmall, the world’s second largest e-commerce website that’s owned by Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba. It has also finally clinched the much rumored iPhone deal with China Mobile, its new iPhones launch on the world’s largest mobile carrier on January 17th. Including the new store, Apple has 13 retail stores in the country, three of which are present in Hong Kong alone. Apple seeks to open as many as 22 stores in Greater China, it may take a few years before that happens though. It has taken Apple five years to open 13 stores, the first was opened back in 2008 in Beijing’s Sanlitun district. The new Apple store is located at China Central Mall in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, doors open tomorrow.

Apple Opens 10th Retail Store In Mainland China Tomorrow original content from Ubergizmo.

We picked up on a rumor about a week ago that Apple might open several of its retail stores on Thanksgiving. Apparently the company’s retail marketing directors were pushing for this decision to capture the Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping fever, joining retailers like Macy’s, Sears, Kmart, WalMart and a few others who will be opening up stores on the holiday. Apple was reportedly going to open several stores in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and more. This would mean that employees would have to be away from home and their families on Thanksgiving, and other retailers have already been criticized for this very reason. Apple wouldn’t have to worry about criticism though, given that CEO Tim Cook has axed all plans to open several stores on Thanksgiving.

Cook reportedly made this decision on the premise that it is important to let retail employees be with their families on Thanksgiving, a premise that an overwhelming majority will agree with. Apple retail store employees who would have been on shifts during the holiday were reportedly going to receive alternate time off, but Cook didn’t go with that plan. By going down this road, Apple joins a list of retailers like Nordstrom and Costco who have all chosen to remain closed through Thanksgiving.

Tim Cook Decides Against Opening Apple Retail Stores On Thanksgiving original content from Ubergizmo.

It was rumored back in August that Apple was going to launch an iPhone trade-in program of its own. Third party retailers had offered such programs for quite some time, this was believed to be Tim Cook’s move to increase iPhone sales being made at the company’s own retail stores. Apple launched the program that month, allowing customers with older models to trade-in their smartphones. Up till now the program has been exclusive to stores in the U.S., though a new report suggests that the program might soon be expanded into the UK and Europe.

Apparently Apple has started preparing training materials for retail store staff in the UK to get them up to speed with the iPhone trade-in program. Training has reportedly begun in a small number of outlets, complete roll out is expected over the next couple of months. The entire procedure is quite simple, customers take in their old iPhone and are offered a value based on the condition of the device. Retail store employees will look at a number of factors such as water damage, screen quality and hardware damage. Once the customer accepts the value for their old iPhone, they’ll be given a gift card of the same value which must be put toward the purchase of a new iPhone. Customers can’t use the gift card for anything else being offered for sale in the store, they have to purchase a new iPhone. No word as yet exactly when Apple intends on launching the program beyond U.S. borders. The UK is a logical place to expand into next, given the fact that after the U.S., it has the highest number of Apple Retail Stores.

Apple Reportedly Expanding iPhone Trade-In Program Beyond The U.S. original content from Ubergizmo.