Apple’s end-to-end customer experience is one of the best of any consumer product company to ever exist. A large part of that experience is facilitated by Apple’s retail stores, which serve as a hub for users to interact with its products. Now Apple is ready to take that experience to the highly coveted Latin American market, as it announced it will have a new store in Brazil by March 2014. As reported by macrumors.com:
“Apple is reportedly planning to open its first retail location in Rio de Janiero, Brazil early next year, according to 9to5Mac. The specific target date for the opening would reportedly be between February and March 2014, which contrasts with an earlier report from August stating that Apple would be opening its first Brazllian retail store this December.
“Apple began hiring for its first Brazilian retail stores last November, and the company has been working with assembly partner Foxconn to move some iPhone and iPad production to the country to avoid hefty import taxes and allow Apple to expand its market share. In October, a regulatory agency also granted Apple the authorization needed to sell the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in Brazil.”
Apple’s move into the Brazilian market is a really significant one. Latin America is one of the fastest growing economic areas in the world. As Brazil has the biggest economy in the region, it will be good for Apple to a have a footprint in the area to win over customers. According qz.com:
“The move into Brazil is a big deal. Smartphone sales, for one, have been booming in the region—sales jumped by 53% in the first quarter of 2013 alone, and grew more than in any other region in the second quarter—and Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, has a lot to do with it. Customers in the country are so enamored with iPhones that many are willing to pay upwards of $1,000 for Apple’s new 5c, which retails for about $550 in the U.S. Furthermore, Latin America is quickly becoming a digital-age goldmine. Internet penetration currently hovers around 45% in the region, and more than 250 million people are now connected to the internet. Very soon, Latin America will have more internet users than the US and Canada. Sales of laptops and tablets in particular are set to skyrocket as more and more people move away from desktop computers in the region.
