By Kim Boram
SEOUL, March 29 (Yonhap) -- U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. said Wednesday it will open its fifth retail store in South Korea later this week, strengthening its presence in the country where its rival Samsung Electronics Co. is maintaining a dominant market position.
Apple Gangnam will open in Seoul's posh southern district of Gangnam on Friday, offering the latest Apple products, including the new iPhone 14.
Apple opened its first South Korean store, Apple Garosugil, in January 2018 and launched three more Seoul stores, in Yeouido, Myeongdong and Jamsil, in the coming years. The Myeongdong store is the biggest Apple retail store in the country.
"We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with our local customers by opening up another retail location in South Korea," Patrick Schuerpf, director of retail business in Asia, said in a press event. "Since opening our first store five years ago, the response from our customers in South Korea has been overwhelmingly positive."
At the new store, some 150 team members, who speak Korean, English, Chinese and others, will help customers look into and explore Apple products, accessories and key retail services, according to Apple.
Special programs focused on Apple's signature expertise apps, including the music creation app GarageBand will be also available for visitors.
At a pop-up studio, customers can attend a special listening session to experience Apple's high-quality sound technology, Spatial Audio, with specially curated music from K-pop girl group NewJeans.
The opening of the Gangnam store comes about a week after Apple launched Apple Pay, its mobile payment service, in South Korea.
Apple Pay, using the near-field communication system, is expected to bring about fresh competition in the local mobile payment market, which has been long dominated by Samsung Electronics' digital payment service Samsung Pay, based on the magnetic secure transmission technology.
According to the latest industry data, Samsung smartphones took up 63 percent of the local smartphone market at the end of 2022, followed by Apple with 34 percent.
brk@yna.co.kr
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