More photo shots of Sydney Apple Store & news of iPhone for Australia

Can't get enough of Apple & iPhone news? So am I. ;-D

There something alluring from that half-bitten fruit logo company and its products, that attract so many people. Maybe the way Apple made its products with putting so many shiny and glossy parts, and display them all inside a gorgeous store; are will sum up into what I would like to call it as "Apple consumerism" habit.

The latest and the most hype Apple Store, is none other than Sydney Apple Store. If you happen to missed my previous coverage post about the store at PalmAddict, then you're in luck cause I'm going to give you another sets of photo shots of the store. But if you had enough of Apple news, then you might want to speed up your mouse scroller or jump to next post since this is a quite long post contain with plenty pictures.

For you who live on the far west part of the world, this Asia-Pacific based Apple Store (Sydney to be exact ;-p) has some interesting facts according to Australian Macworld:

• the second-largest Apple Store in the world (after London's Regent Street store)
• the largest sheets of plate glass in the world at more than 15m a piece
• the largest Apple logo in the world
• the longest Genius Bar in the world

Are they all true? Let's find out with these photo shots below, that I've collected from various contributors and with help from some of my friends who live in there. Thanks mate! ;-D

Early in the morning, people were already lining up and got comfy in each of their own spot. Some brought their chairs, sleeping bag, food & drinks. But hey, wait a minute. Is that an old Mac computer there?? What was it doing there among the queue line? Maybe those guys thought they could trade-off or upgrade it with the new Mac? ~LOL~

There were awfully a lot of people came from every parts of the world, and that old man there named Mike Kaufmann came from US just so he didn't miss the grand opening of Sydney Apple Store! Talk about Apple die-hard fan, way to go grandpa! Keep that spirit burning in you! ;-D

When it was getting darker, and the store has been officially opened; people started to pouring down the street and tried to get into the store. So Apple employees had to limit the customers who wished to get in and thus made such a very long line outside the store. And it got worse, bypassers were attracted to know and jumped into the queue to get inside too. It was a chaos, police men were finally had to control the mob before everything got out of hand.

That's it, the biggest Apple logo in the whole wide world. How big you ask? You may judge it yourself by looking at the most left picture there, where Apple employees were standing while they're briefed on how to handle the smelly crowds who camped from the morning and haven't took a shower. Eeeww...

So the Sydney Apple Store had the brightest idea; gave a souvenir which contain a fresh new T-shirt. That way the smelly customers won't smell that bad... Thank goodness, I wasn't there when that happened. ;-p ~LOL~ Aside from the souvenir box, they all get a visitor's guide. How nice, they thought of a survival guide in that huge new Apple Store.

I know you're etching to know what was inside that souvenir box, so head on to picture below to witness it yourself.

The Apple box souvenir contained a Sydney Apple Store T-shirt, which at the front has iPod wave and at the back has tiny picture of Apple logo with the date of the grand opening. So much for the excitement, eh?

The Sydney Apple Store T-shirt souvenir looks almost the same with Apple employee's Specialist T-shirt, but upon closer look you'll see the difference. But to be honest, I'll prefer the old Apple T-shirt. There's something striking about the old colorful Apple stripes. O how good old times fly by so quickly...

The bottom level is all Macs, with little to no indication of Apple's reliance on iPod and the forthcoming iPhone as revenue generators. Having the iPods on the second floor means that people have to go past the Macs to get to them. Fairly canny, these Apple types.

The stairs! Again, I have to show you guys the glass stairs. It's Apple Store trademark now, and surely a great spectackle to see. The second floor is reached via a glass staircase — an architectural staple of Apple Stores worldwide. At the top of the stair you're greeted by a massive range of iPod products — cases, chargers, transmitters and other doodads, as well as any iPod in the range that you might like to ask for.

The Macs, are everywhere! This floor also includes a range of software (though not very much of it, frankly) as well as cases and other Mac accessories. And as you can see on the picture above, there are young ones and old ones who are interested in Apple's products. Apple fans have wide range of age, no matter how old are you, you can't avoid from becoming one. ;-)

The longest Genius Bar table, so everyone said. What do you think? Whether this is because Australia is seen as more in need of help than other countries, or whether it's just because we have an unusually high concentration of Geniuses (Genii?) was not explained.

The Genius Bar and the Personal Trainers are really what set the Apple Store apart as a retail experience. The former allow you to bring in any problem you're having with Apple gear — hardware or software — and they'll do their darnedest to fix it for you on the spot for free. If it turns out to be something that can't be fixed in twenty minutes or so, you're given the option of a longer consultation though this won't be free. Likewise the personal Trainers can be booked by appointment to help you with aspects of your Mac usage that might be confusing or troubling you. Installing software, getting to understand the iLife applications, switching from Windows, and that kind of thing.

The children table, is one of the most neat idea from Sydney Apple Store. Apple should provide this more in every of its stores. There are only two Macs on the table, and obviously the table is made low than the usual height for adult. But hey, even the adults like to become younger again and try to have a match with the real young ones. Shame on them, they should've know better. ~LOL~
Did anyone notice, that woman on the left picture carried two boxes of Apple souvenir! Darn, I want one too! ;-p

Well, it's time to go home. They've played enough and exhausted from touching & making smudges, on every shiny Apple gizmos they can put their hands on. But when the rain started at night, Apple employees handed umbrella with Apple logo to some of the customers who lined up in front of the store. Lucky, there are no reports or whatsoever on stolen Apple umbrella that day. Pssst, if you snatched two; don't be greedy and give one to me okey? ;-D

There you have them, more detailed photo shots from the grand opening event of Sydney Apple Store. Many thanks to dreadfuldan, sachman, Tris Graf, Christopher Chan,`pong, cryptarcadian, lin-yin, karsoe, z_fishies, brittensarah, aaqius, justinbari, spaceman bartron, wmagallanes; for all of the great pictures. You guys rock, and please keep those amazing shots coming! Cuz we can't get enough of 'em.

And now there's a good news for you who want to get iPhone at Australia, Macworld was reporting that Telstra, Australia’s largest mobile phone operator will now join Vodafone to distribute iPhone. No details about availability or pricing have been published yet, but we imagine Vodafone will get a bit of a headstart in offering the handset.

This isn’t a terribly surprising development: Telstra’s CEO Sol Trujillo said last October that they were negotiating with Apple over bringing the iPhone to Australia, but that revenue sharing was a sticking point. Now that it’s out of the picture, we can all live happily ever after in a land down under. Where women glow and men plunder.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]