New Shenzhen Apple Store Set to Open November 3rd

Apple’s new store in Shenzhen, set to open November 3rd. (Image: CiPhone,fr)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has set an official opening date for its seventh store in mainland China – and its first in the south of the country. The new Shenzhen Apple Store will open its doors on Saturday, November 3rd at 9am.

Shenzhen Apple Store notice: click to enlarge.

The new shop is at the high-end Holiday Plaza in Shenzhen (pictured above, courtesy of CiPhone.fr), which is home to luxury brand stores such as those from Burberry and Omega.

This year has seen a huge proliferation in Apple Stores in mainland China – and Hong Kong – with two new ones opened in just the past few weeks: one in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district, and another on Beijing’s Wangfujing shopping street.

Shenzhen is on the border with Hong Kong, which already has two stores of its own. And so the Shenzhen Apple Store seems like a calculated attempt to cut the cross-border, sales-tax-dodging grey importers who smuggle in cheaper gadgets from Hong Kong. But it’s also more of a risk, as most Shenzhen citizens can quite easily drop into Hong Kong – which has no sales tax/VAT in stores – for a few hours to make large purchases.

In Apple’s earning calls last week, Tim Cook said that the official iPhone 5 release for China will happen in December. He hopes.

Find the new Shenzhen Apple Store page here.

[Hat-tip to QQ Tech (article in Chinese) for spotting this]