Apple Adds Italy, France, German Stores To Retail Map
Although the economy has caused it to curtail opening more retail locations in 2009, Apple Wednesday officially added France and Germany to its list of European stores.
Two locations appear to be vying for the spot as Apple’s first storefront in Paris. The most well-known is one slated in the Carrousel du Louvre, a mall nearby the famous Louvre museum. However, a store is also on the drawing board situated close to the Paris-based Garnier operahouse, according to reports.
Following its Paris premiere, Apple is expected to launched another French store in Montpellier.
The Cupertino-based Apple also added a Milan, Italy location without providing details.
Apple will also open later this year its second German store, this time in Hamburg. In 2008, the company unveiled a storefront in Munich, marking its retail launch in Germany.
In related news, Apple Tuesday settled a lawsuit brought by two disabled Mac fans. The two wheelchair customers charged Apple’s San Francisco retail locations lacked access for disabled shoppers. As a result, Cupertino agreed to revamp employee training and its store layout.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
