The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally be sold

Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by a2tech on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:23PM (#37579332)

Our old exchange student from Turkmenistan insisted that there was an Apple store in a couple of malls in Ashgabat, but I showed her that Apple doesn't officially sell anything in TM. She sent me some pictures and it was a complete clone of the official Apple store. Down to outfits, displays, the whole thing. Selling brand new, smuggled in, iPhones/iPads/etc. It was wild.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by radicaldreamer on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:26PM (#37579361)

This was the case in China too until Apple heavily expanded there. There were many knockoff Apple Stores with slightly lower quality outfitting. Here's an "Apple Store" in Iran: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-tehran-iran-16th-oct-2014-...

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by pertymcpert on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @11:09PM (#37579990)

There are still tons of fake apple stores in China. They're also in prominent places that you'd expect Apple to open, not in small side streets etc.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by oefrha on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @11:52PM (#37580190)

Apple has lots of authorized resellers. Apple’s official site has a locator: https://locate.apple.com/sales or https://locate.apple.com/cn/zh/sales.

Not being an official Apple Store doesn’t mean it’s fake, especially if it’s in a prominent mall or something.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by pertymcpert on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @03:10AM (#37581281)

I'm very well aware what they are. Authorized resellers are not supposed to look like real Apple stores.

If you see an "Apple Store" that looks real but isn't an official Apple Store then it's fake, or its an authorized reseller that if Apple finds out about them will lose their status as a reseller.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by midasuni on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @09:09AM (#37583671)

What a terrible site. It assumes I am only interested in sites near where it thinks I am. I type in “Cairo” and get no results at all. Amman comes out with a village in Wales.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by c22 on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @12:05PM (#37585915)

Lol, I blocked the location request and it still limited my results to the region geolocated by my IP.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by radicaldreamer on Friday September 22, 2023 @02:59PM (#37616203)

You'd almost think they don't want people to scrape where the authorized retailers are outside of their immediate location

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by MichaelZuo on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:30PM (#37579393)

Do you know of any pictures of these Turkmen 'apple stores' online?

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by a2tech on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @10:33PM (#37579790)

I don’t. I’ll ask her if her sister who is still in country can send her a couple. I’ll update the thread if I get any. It’s a very interesting place, it’s a shame it’s so closed off.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by astrange on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:53PM (#37579529)

For the longest time there was a store in Akihabara Tokyo that wasn't a fake Apple Store, but really looked like it wanted to be one.

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by tpmx on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @01:45AM (#37580765)

Sofmap Mac Collection, I think.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110426040855/http://www.mac-co...

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by yen223 on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @11:22PM (#37580068)

There are no official Apple stores in Malaysia. But there are Apple "premium resellers" [1] who have shops that strongly resemble Apple stores.

These appear to be sanctioned by Apple, since they appear on Apple's own store locator website [2].

[1] Google "machines malaysia" for example

[2] https://locate.apple.com/my/en/sales?pt=4&lat=3.160000085830...

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by ks2048 on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @02:53AM (#37581187)

This seems to be the case in many parts of the world. Here is a picture of an "iShop" store in Guatemala City: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GRuxFf5iupVfJApz8

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by madarcho on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @03:56AM (#37581596)

And we don't necessarily need to step out of the western world to see it. I still remember Authorized Retailers in France before the expansion of Apple stores beyond the US. In Denmark, there is still exclusively these "Premium Authorized Resellers".

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by gambiting on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @05:26AM (#37582181)

There's lots of them in Poland even though Apple now has official presence in the country(although online only, I don't think they have any official Apple Stores yet).

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by rob74 on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @08:30AM (#37583330)

Well, yeah, maybe the furniture and interior design looks the same as in "real" Apple stores, but if you look at the sign outside of the store (can't link to the specific photo on Google Maps unfortunately) there's little danger of confusion...

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by csomar on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @07:06AM (#37582728)

strongly resemble is fine (maybe encouraged?). These stores do not claim Apple copyright and also advertise themselves as resellers. Also, being a premium reseller, they do handle warranty (regardless of whether you bought the product there, in another store, or from another country).

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Re:The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally b... by ovi256 on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @07:54AM (#37583071)

I knew of a fake Ikea mini-store in Kiev in 2014.

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