As Apple Store looms, how will local resellers respond?

According to a source, the regional Apple office has finally realized that their sales volume in the Philippines is already huge that it warrants they put up a physical store in the country. Yes, definitely a physical store that will compete with the premium resellers.

I am told that Apple has hired 3 new senior executives based in the Philippines to help over-see this expansion. There’s already a core team in the country for a couple of years now but they’re mostly here to interact with dealers and resellers.

This isn’t the first time that a supposed Apple Store will be built in Manila. Back in 2009, the company CB Engineers designed this project in Fort Bonifacio:

CB Engineers was selected by the Ayala Development Group to provide consulting services as the sustainability consultant and commissioning agent for the new Philippine Stock Exchange Office Building.

The project is a new 650,000-sq.ft. high rise office tower complex located in Bonifacio Global City, a business district of Metro Manila in the Philippines. The project is named for its anchor tenant the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) although the PSE will be occupying only about 108,000 sf or 15% of the total projected floor area. The project is being designed as a LEED Gold, Class A office space (referred to as Triple A Office Space in Manila) and will seek high profile tenants such as headquarters of large multinationals, with the retail section housing the Apple Store, Manila as the anchor tenant.

To match the projects ambitious design goals, the Ownership Group has insisted on retaining a world class design team which includes Skidmore Owings & Merrill, SOM; EDAW and CB Engineers along with qualified local architects and engineers as the designers or record.

In April 2012, the PSE Board approved the relocation of its unified trading floor and corporate headquarters to Bonifacio Global City under a revised property deal with Ayala Land Inc. The area is around the BGC’s West Super Block.

If this project will happen, and it surely will, Apple will have its own footprint in the Philippines. An official Apple Store that people will certainly flock to when they want to buy anything Apple — iPhone, iPad and Mac.

With this development, the Apple Premium Resellers might get less attention from Apple fans. Once you have the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, that’s the only place you’d want to go to if you have to get your iDevices fixed or replaced. And of course, if you want to buy Apple, you’d more likely to get it from the real Apple Store. (Oh, I can see the really long lines now.)

The leaves the resellers with? Fewer customers to service. They won’t go away but they might need to expand their catering beyond Apple products to sustain or maybe extend store hours to like 24/7.

In the end, this is definitely good news to consumers and Apple fan boys out there.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

21 Comments

ahnntz says:

12 years ago

sana nga magkaroon na
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Mik says:

12 years ago

I hope this happens! Kasi real Apple Stores offer education discounts especially for their Macs while yung resellers wala man lang offer :(
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Paul says:

12 years ago

Wala pa bang job postings para d2? Hehe
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Jake says:

12 years ago

An Apple Store can only be given justice if they have the same standard prices from the US stores.
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Greenhairnet says:

12 years ago

Aba susyalin lugar ang pinili. Sana yung tipong Middle earners place din piliin nila, ripong around Pasig /ortigas area
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tofu_boy says:

12 years ago

F*CK Y’ALL & Shut the hell up… Just buy it if you want it… EOC…
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Oren Pontillas says:

12 years ago

I wanna be a Genius!
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gavain says:

12 years ago

I think the term local resellers is wrong. Those found in malls are authorized dealers. Resellers are those that sell grey units.
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erikjames says:

12 years ago

now i can buy ORIGINAL apple products! yehey! for sure it will be much cheaper too. wala kasi akong tiwala sa mga “resellers” kuno, karamihan ng benta nila palpak at mas mahal.
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marco says:

12 years ago

So you are assuming na ung binebenta ng mga resellers eh fake?

Billy says:

12 years ago

I’m very excited Yehey!
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israel says:

12 years ago

Apple will not allow authorized local resellers to have a lower price than them. But what this does is make the customers that much better. No questions asked returns etc.
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jimmyjr says:

12 years ago

No doubt mas mura pa rin sa mg authorized resellers.
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xian says:

12 years ago

will they allow this, too, here in the ph –> http://youtu.be/Bo2p82aTQzo
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snpklsdmbldr says:

12 years ago

I think that PSE design is the old one, they changed (and downsized) it already.
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Williamomoy says:

12 years ago

I just hope their prices published online will be much more different (lower) in their physical store.
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pong says:

12 years ago

if they do that i’ll try an apple computer
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John says:

12 years ago

If stores would offer flexible payment schemes like 0 interest on CC payments people would still buy from them
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luiboowee says:

12 years ago

When this happens, magiging malungkot na yata ang launch ng iPhone. I was thinking Globe and Smart would pull off a grander iPhone party whenever iPhone 5 would be launched here. With an Apple Store present, Filipinos might just campout and line up outside the store. Buying an iPhone would be less Fun in the Philippines. hehehe.
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itachi1 says:

12 years ago

IMHO, it may go the other way around. With a local foothold here, the telcos may get more support from them. Deriving from this, we may expect grander telco launch parties.