Apple’s Retail Wave Hits Down Under

By

post-2135-image-04c5e4f0968511667cde8abb74d97f73-jpg

Photo by Christopher Chan

Proving themselves every bit as susceptible to consumer hype as their American counterparts, thousands of Apple fans attended the grand opening of Apple’s first retail store in Sydney last week, with several hundred having queued up as long as 31 hours prior to the opening hour.

Accommodated by agreeable weather, the large crowd helped continue Apple’s success in rolling out its innovative retail concept, which makes the stores themselves almost as much of a draw as the products inside.

More pics after the jump.

Blue-shirted Geniuses welcome the crowds

sydney_welcome.jpg
Photo by Shaon Diwakar

Post-opening rainfall did not dampen the crowds or their enthusiasm

sydney_night.jpg
Photo by nerdfeliz

The glass staircases inside the store are getting rave design reviews

sydney_stairs.jpg
Photo by Christopher Chan

Crowds inside the store were wall-to-wall

sydney_inside.jpg
Photo by Gary, ifoAppleStore

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.

18 responses to “Apple’s Retail Wave Hits Down Under”

  1. Bryan Walls says:

    Hmm. Nothing after the jump but Share, Digg, and reddit buttons!

  2. lonbud says:

    oops. Should be there now. Sorry for the head-fake.

  3. Jon says:

    This store looks amazing – the location is wonderful too (I lived in Sydney a while ago). I managed to visit the city last year once more, so was a year too early!

    Is this the second biggest store in the world now? Am I right that Regent Street in London is still number 1 in terms of sheer size?

  4. lonbud says:

    I believe this one is #2, with the largest being on Boylston St. in Boston.

  5. Stuart Rowe says:

    Second Biggest in the world behind London… However it lays claim to having the worlds biggest Genius Bar. Also the first store in the Southern Hemisphere! Too bad it wasnt in Melbourne!

  6. Christopher Chan says:

    Hi,

    Thanks for using my photos in this blog post but it would have been nice if informed me before hand.

    thanks,

    Chris

  7. lonbud says:

    @Christopher Chan:

    I hope the pic credits/links drove some traffic to your flickr pages, Chris. You got some great shots in Sydney and are a fine photographer of other subjects as well!

    Cheers,
    Lonnie

  8. Christopher Chan says:

    @Lonnie

    Thanks for the compliments Lonnie. Can you please link the larger images to my Flickr site ?

    thanks,

    Chris

  9. Richard says:

    We need a store like this in the UK.

    The closest one to me is 20+ miles away :(