Great news for those of you in the Middle East who want quick and easy access to Apple’s products and services. The Cupertino-based giant has announced that it will be opening its first two Apple Retail Stores in the Middle East on October 29. Anyone based in the region who wants to visit an official Apple outlet currently needs to make the journey across to Turkey’s capital, Istanbul, as that’s the closest store at the moment. As of October 29 that will no longer be the case with Dubai and Abu Dhabi set to benefit from Apple’s presence.
As previously reported, the new Apple Store that will be opened in Dubai will be placed in a prime location within the Mall of the Emirates where it will receive a huge amount of footfall from local and visiting shoppers.
The official opening of the store will happen at 4:00pm local time in Dubai, where there’s sure to be a lot of jubilance to celebrate the fact that this will be the first Apple location within the United Arab Emirates. After the initial opening ceremony, the store will be open for business from 10am until approximately 10pm.
The opening celebrations for the Abu Dhabi store, which will be located inside of the Yas Mall, will be held three hours later at 7:00pm local time and will ultimately benefit from the same hours of business as the Dubai outlet. We’ve been hearing about the two new United Arab Emirates store for a number of months now. Speculation that the store in Dubai will be Apple’s largest retail outlet yet has been circulating since 2014, with the employment process to fill all positions within the retail store also ongoing since August of that same year.
In preparation for the opening of the two new stores Apple will also be introducing the Apple Watch into the United Arab Emirates, a week before the doors to its stores are opened in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The official availability of the Apple Watch in the UAE will be offered as part of the company’s eighth wave of the intelligent timepiece, with prices for the wrist wear starting at 1,399 dirhams for the Apple Watch Sport version. Consumers located in the UAE can expect to benefit from the same services that are offered worldwide, such as Genius Bar appointments and individually set up workshops to showcase Apple products.
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