AsianMarkets
Latest
Hon Hai to expand retail chain, open 500 Apple licensed stores in Asia
A report out of Digitimes suggests that Cybermart, a retail arm of Hon Hai which also owns Foxconn, has recently received approval as an Apple-licensed retailer in the Asia-pacific region. The retailer intends to sell Apple products in up to 500 new stores planned for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Cybermart will open seven to eight stores in 2011, starting with its first store in Tianjin, China which will open on April 1, 2011. These retail stores will complement the 20 stores Apple is planning to open in China during 2011. While the Apple Stores will form the hub of company's Chinese operations, Cybermart's retail chain and household name will help Apple expand its presence in the growing Asian market. The retailer is known for its selection of electronics and aims to become China's top electronics chain. Apple is wisely eyeing the Asian market for explosive growth in 2011. In Apple's last quarter, Asian revenue is up 147% and could bring Apple up to $2 billion annually. The iPhone is also gaining in popularity with a 12% market share in Japan and over 20% post-paid share in South Korea.
Analyst: Apple to expand the iPhone to new carriers, boost sales in Asia
Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford Bernstein said the Apple iPhone is enjoying wide-spread acceptance in Asia that is "on par with the U.S. in some cases." Recent figures from IDC suggest that 12% of all cell phones sold in Japan are iPhones and South Korea's KT confirmed earlier this week that it has sold two million iPhones since launching the handset in late 2009. Apple addressed this growing market during its recent earnings conference call and confirmed that sales in the Asia and Japan have doubled year over year. Sacconaghi projected that Apple will take advantage of this momentum and expand to additional carriers in the Asian region. Currently, the iPhone is sold exclusively by China Unicom in China, Softbank in Japan and KT in South Korea. Future carriers may include China Telecom, Japan's KDDI and LG Telecom in South Korea. Combined, the three carriers have a subscriber base of 75 million and could help Apple sell an additional seven to eight million iPhones in 2011. Interestingly enough, Sacconaghi did not include China Mobile in his list of potential future providers. China Mobile recently stated it was working with Apple on a TD-LTE version of the popular smartphone. Though these predictions are encouraging, they may not pan out as Apple recently said that production of the iPhone 4 is still constrained when compared to global demand.
