Apple’s plans to open its first official retail store in Israel appear to have run into problems.
A new report claims negotiations between Apple and the property developer and mall owner of the proposed location have broken down over financial terms.
Apple supposedly wanted to open its store in the upmarket Sarona Azrieli tower in Tel Aviv, the tallest skyscraper in Israel. The 61-floor tower was opened in 2017. It also includes office space rented by other tech giants including Facebook, Amazon and Dropbox.
Unfortunately for local Apple fans, it doesn’t sound like there’s a backup option available, either. Haaretz, Israel’s longest-running newspaper, writes that:
“After examining the possibility of opening an official store in Israel for the last year or two, Apple has dropped the plan because no mall owner is prepared to meet its conditions, which include helping cover its marketing and inventory costs, an industry source who asked not to be identified had said in the past.”
It had also been considering stores in Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard and Jerusalem’s Malcha mall. It’s not clear from the report exactly what Apple’s contentious terms were. It may have simply been a matter as prosaic as rent disagreements.
Apple in Israel
While Apple has yet to open a retail store in Israel, the country certainly has links with Apple.
Apple has acquired several Israeli startups over the years. In 2011, it bought flash memory maker Anobit. Apple acquired 3-D sensor company PrimeSense in 2013, and bought LinX in 2015. Last year, it acquired RealFace, an Israeli startup that developed facial-recognition technology for user authentication. This may have been the basis for Face ID (or at least some of its technology) for the iPhone X.
Israel is also the location of Apple’s biggest R&D center outside the United States. The company’s offices in Herzliya, Israel make it easier for the company to tap into the country’s thriving tech scene.
In 2015, Tim Cook visited Israel and met with the country’s president, Reuven Rivlin. At the time, Cook talked about Apple’s love for Israel as an “ally for the U.S.” and a “place to do business.”
