Apple's China-based retail stores are extremely popular, but shoppers might soon have another option if they want to snap up an iPad or iPhone. Ho Hai Precision Industry, the parent company of Apple product maker Foxconn, will reportedly open retail stores that sell Apple products, according to Bloomberg.
Citing the Economic Daily News, Bloomberg said Ho Hai-owned electronics retailer Cybermart International will spend about $1.6 billion on the project.
According to 9to5Mac, Cybermart obtained permission to be an official Apple Authorized Reseller back in January. The company has 34 stores in China, with up to eight new stores planned this year. In the coming years, however, Cybermart could have as many as 500 stores selling Apple products, 9to5 Mac said.
Apple products have been hot in China, and their popularity has only grown since Apple opened its first retail location in Beijing in July 2008, just in time for the capital city to host the summer Olympics. Apple has just four stores open in China; two in Beijing and two in Shanghai, with a rumored 20 additional shops to open in 2011. That number is unconfirmed, but one thing is certain: Apple will continue to push into China.
Chinese Apple Stores are some of the busiest in the world, seeing on average both the most foot traffic and the most revenue out of any other Apple Stores. They average about 40,000 customers a day, which is four times greater than the daily traffic in U.S. Apple Stores. In its last earnings call, Apple divulged that quarterly revenue from China quadrupled, climbing to $2.6 billion, which is 10 percent of Apple's total revenue.
Apple would not confirm the rumor, but if the company's popularity in China is any indication, Foxconn stores could be a viable option to make Apple products more readily available to a larger consumer population.
Foxconn, meanwhile, has come under fire for its working conditions, which critics say contributed to suicides at the company's Chinese plants. For more, see Foxconn Factories: How Bad Is It?