Update: Apple has confirmed Singapore as the location for its South-East Asian flagship debut. This will also be Apple's first fully solar-powered store.
Rumours and Apple go hand-in-hand, but here’s one that doesn’t involve a stolen iPhone or leaked images of iPad cases: Singapore’s first-ever Apple Store is set to open late next year, in Knightsbridge shopping centre.
According to The Straits Times, current tenant Pure Fitness is handing back its 15,000 square foot space in the Orchard Road mall to pave the way for what will presumably be a gleaming, white-clad Apple Store. Tech in Asia traced the source back to a press release and email issued by the gym, and it seems other tenants are also involved. Apple, however, has declined to comment.
It makes sense that the tech giant chose the city-state for its first store in South-East Asia. Not only is Singapore among the first countries to receive the newest iGadgets, Eight Inc, the strategic design firm responsible for conceptualising the Apple Store way back when, has an office here – its only studio in the region.
The rumour mill will keep on cranking, but Apple fanboys and girls have something new – a Genius Bar, perhaps? – to hope for in 2016.