Apple opens its latest Flagship Store in Hong Kong

Apple has opened its sixth Hong Kong retail store in Kwun Tong, the city’s second-highest populated district, bringing the technology giant’s total number of branded shops in China to 43.

An estimated 1,000 people queued in front of the new store inside the APM shopping mall as its doors opened at 11am on Thursday, adding to the more than 30 million estimated visitors since 2011 to the company’s Hong Kong retail network.

“This is the 15th store we’ve opened this year across China,” said Kristen Petralia, Apple’s director of retail for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. “Our stores in China are some of the busiest in the world.”

Apple’s China market, which is led by the mainland, is the company’s second-largest geographical operating segment behind the Americas.

Petralia said Apple would celebrate the fifth anniversary of its first Hong Kong retail location in Central on Saturday.

The city’s first Apple Store, located inside the upmarket IFC Mall, was launched on September 24, 2011, about a month after Tim Cook was named the company’s chief executive.

Petralia said Apple’s new store in Kwun Tong, which had a population of 641,100 last year, was “in a part of town that is becoming incredibly trendy and diverse” with a mix of “industrial, commercial, sports and art spaces”.

In July last year, Apple estimated it had welcomed about 30 million visitors to its first three stores in Hong Kong at IFC Mall, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and Hysan Place in Causeway Bay. Its other stores in the city are at Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and New Town Plaza in Sha Tin.

Apple is estimated to have nearly 480 retail stores in 19 countries and territories as of May.

The California-based company reported a 33 per cent drop in revenue from China to US$8.85 billion in its third financial quarter to June 25 from a year earlier.