Apple Myeong-dong Myeong-dong exterior wall design taking advantage of regional characteristics
The fourth Apple Store Jamsil is likely to open this year.
Apple Myeongdong. [Photo provided by Apple] The exterior wall design of Apple Myeong-dong, a new Apple store that Apple is expected to open soon, has been unveiled. The Myeongdong branch is the third Apple store in Korea after Garosu-gil and Yeouido. Apple is also planning to open its fourth store, Jamsil, this year.
Even when the first Apple store in Korea was opened on Garosu-gil, Korea’s stand-alone theory was discussed because it was delayed compared to other countries. However, as it is known that Apple will open two additional Apple stores this year following the Yeouido branch of last year, it is evaluated that it is definitely working hard on the Korean market.
◆ Myeong-dong meets Apple… Scheduled to open in the first half of this year
The Apple Myeongdong exterior wall barricade unveiled by Apple on the 21st was designed to commemorate the academic history of the Myeongdong area in the past and Chaekado, an art style popular among scholars.
Apple said that it was originally called Myeongryebang because the residents of Myeongdong kept good manners and customs. explained that it was reproduced.
An official opening date has not been announced, but it is expected in the first half of the year. Apple has been posting job postings since July last year to secure manpower for its Myeongdong branch.
Apple Myeongdong. [Photo courtesy of Apple] Apple Myeongdong is the third Apple store in Korea after Apple Garosu-gil and Apple Yeouido. Apple opened its first offline store, Apple Garosu-gil, on January 17, 2018, and opened a second store, Apple Yeouido, on February 26, 2018.
Apple will also open a fourth Apple Store in the East Seoul area this year. Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, Seoul is the most likely location. Considering Apples naming method, which names the area rather than the building in which the store is located, the name of the 4th store is likely to be Apple Jamsil.
◆ A sudden attack of affection for Korea without any effort
Regarding Apples recent aggressive opening of offline stores in Korea, the industry gives an evaluation that it is more active than expected. This is because Apple has not invested much in the Korean market.
Apple has excluded Korea from the list of first launch countries when launching new iPhones every year. Most of them were in the 2nd release country, and there were also cases in the 3rd release country. In the case of iPhone 11, in Korea, it was released about a month later than in the first country. By the way, by classifying the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 as 1.5 countries, the country and the release period were narrowed down to one week.
iPhone 13. [Photo provided by Apple] In fact, there is a reason why Apple does not include Korea as the first launch country. This is because the Korean market is not very attractive to Apple. As of the third quarter of last year, Apple took the second place with a 12% market share in the domestic smartphone market. It is a 73% point difference from Samsung Electronics, which is ranked first.
As a result, there was a lot of controversy. When Apple opened Apple Garosu-gil in 2018, it caused controversy because of its delayed schedule compared to neighboring countries. Afterwards, an employee responded to the customer who visited the Apple Store as an after-sales service, saying that the customer can speak English. At that time, when this incident became known, there were also various stories of customers saying that they were treated similarly at Apple stores.
