Apple unveils its 'Crystal Palace' Sydney retail store

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 18 June 2008 09:23

IT Industry - Market

With its three storey high, 700 square metre all-glass frontage and all-glass staircase Apple's new retail store in Sydney, its second largest, is an impressive edifice dedicated to service and training as much as to sales.

The store, in the heart of the CBD is Apple's 215th since it opened the first one in Tokyo in 2001. It opens to the public at 5.00pm, Thursday 19 June, an occasion that looks set to draw huge crowds. By the time of the press preview at 10.00 the day before the queue was already forming. Not that there had been any special bargains promised (the first 2500 get an Apple t-shirt). Asked by iTWire why he was there, one early queuer explained that it was "for the experience."

The store is on three levels: Macs on the ground floor and Apple's newer products, from the iPod onwards on the first floor (first and second floors if you are reading this in the US) The second/third floor is given over entirely to training and service, predominantly Apple's 'Genius Bar' - at 20 metres the longest in any Apple Store. The upper levels are reached by a series of all glass steps, each two metre wide and five centimetres thick. They look stunning in their pristine state. How they will look after a few thousands of pairs of feet remains to be seen.

According to Ron Johnson, "the store is part of a brand new building which enabled us to do something different. We tried to get all our products and people as close to the street as we could...We wanted to create the biggest invitation to people to come in. So we created this glass atrium with over 700 square metres of glass that goes all the way to the top of the building...From on George Street you can see every product in the store." Johnson claimed that the frontage comprised "the largest sheets of laminated glass in the world: they are over 15 metres tall. CONTINUED