Customers try Apple products during the opening day of a US tech-giant Apple shop at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai yesterday.
US technology giant Apple yesterday launched its first two stores in the Middle East, with hundreds flocking to their openings in the rich Gulf emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The new stores opened as the firm, the world’s biggest company by market value, seeks further growth in emerging markets.
Some customers queued for hours outside the new Dubai store on the second floor of the Mall of the Emirates, including Omani Mahmud Jawad, who drove more than 400km from Muscat with a friend to attend the opening. “They will be successful here like they have been elsewhere in the world,” he said.
Apple products were previously available in the United Arab Emirates but not in one of Apple’s own retail outlets. In Abu Dhabi, the Apple Store opened in Yas Island, near the Emirati capital’s Formula 1 circuit.
