Apple is opening this week stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong, taking the total number of its stores in China to six.
The tech giant plans to open its first retail store in Hong Kong on Saturday, a day after it opened a store in Shanghai. The company already has two stores in Shanghai, and another two in Beijing.
Demand for Apple’s products in China has soared since the company launched its iPhone 4 product in the country last September. For the first three months of 2011, iPhone sales in China saw a year-on-year increase of almost 250 percent, according to previous statements from Apple’s now CEO Tim Cook.
Apple’s iPad has also dominated China’s tablet market, with a 74 percent share, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.
Demand for the products has been so high that unauthorized resellers in China have created fake Apple stores by using the company’s logos to decorate their shops. Authorities in one city have responded by cracking down on the fake stores.
Apple has said previously it would open 25 stores in China over a two year period. But the pace of store openings so far has been much slower and focused on China’s largest cities. Apple’s newest store in Shanghai will be the company’s largest in the country.