Apple is planning to expand its global retail presence by opening more physical stores (via Bloomberg).
Despite inner cities struggling with an accelerating shift to online sales, Apple is planning to open more retail stores. The company currently operates 511 Apple stores globally, of which over 100 are in Europe.
Apple's senior vice president of retail and people, Deirdre O'Brien, confirmed the intention to expand to Germany's Funke Mediengruppe:
On our online site people can learn a lot about the products; in a store they can touch them and get a feel for them. We intend to add more stores.
While it is not yet clear if the expansion is set to be concentrated on a particular region, O'Brien's comments to the German publisher may suggest that Europe will be a focal point.
Apple's newest store is Apple Via del Corso in Rome, which opened just last week, and the company is also in the process of building its second store in Berlin.
Moreover, O'Brien remarked that Apple will "undoubtedly" add to its international design infrastructure, as seen with the company's plan to build a one-billion Euro chip design center in Munich within the next three years.
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