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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is rumored to be planning to launch a new retail 
store in downtown Taipei, Taiwan, its first retail outlet foray beyond the U.S. and Japan.
The reports also say Apple will enter a partnership to sell silver iPod Minis in 7-11 convenience stores throughout Taiwan.
This would bring Apple's international retail store count to three, in contrast to more than 75 in the United States. A London, England, retail outlet is also expected to be opened before Christmas, the company's first retail outlet in Europe.
Representatives of Cupertino, California-based Apple did not to respond to requests for comment about the company's strategy or to confirm its plan for the island or in the Asia-Pacific region.
Healthy Competition
Apple will be entering Taiwan as Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) also makes moves to launch a retail presence to demonstrate its wares in Taipei. The Texas-based PC maker has a kiosk-based presence throughout the Asian region, including Singapore, Japan and Australia. Media reports place Dell as 10th in the Taiwanese marketplace.
According to IDC research, Apple shipped more than 547,000 units to the Asian-Pacific region, including Japan, in 2003, and has moved 141,000 through the second quarter of this year.
Motivation for Apple to expand into Taiwan could be its lackluster numbers there when marketing from afar, selling just under 10,000 units on the island in 2003, and just over 3,400 in the first six months of 2004.
These numbers come in the face of what IDC senior manager Bryan Ma called "healthy" numbers of PC shipments to the Asia-Pacific region in the second quarter of 2004. Ma wrote in an IDC report last month that "Despite wild cards like regional elections and fluctuating oil prices, PC shipments in the Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan) generally met our forecasts for a healthy second quarter."
Not a New Market
The Far East is not new territory for Apple, having two stores in Japan and sales from that country alone accounting for $172 million of its third quarter 2004 numbers.
Interestingly, Apple does not account for the Asian region specifically in financial statements, instead bundling it with subsidiary Filemaker's numbers in an Other category.
For the fiscal quarter ended June 26, 2004, Apple identified $146 million in sales and 58,000 units under the Other heading.
Apple also recently partnered with Chinese PC maker Founder Technology in May 2004. Chinese PC buyers will find iTunes on all forthcoming hardware from Founder. This was largely considered an attempt to seed brand awareness in what is viewed by many as an emerging and explosive economy. Founder currently holds 5 percent market share of PC shipments in China, trailing Dell's 7 percent.
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