CHONGQING - Apple opened a new store in Chongqing municipality in Southwest China on Saturday, bringing the number of Apple stores in the Chinese mainland to 11.

Another Apple store is expected to be opened on Aug 2 in Wuxi city in East China's Jiangxu province, about a one-hour drive from Shanghai。

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year the company will open more than 25 stores in China in the future。

Although Apple declined to disclose future plans, its Chinese website lists job opportunities in Apple stores in 16 provinces and municipalities in China, including East China's Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces, as well as Guizhou in Southwest China. Among the listed locations, only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Chongqing currently have Apple stores。

The store opening followed news on Monday that nearly half of China's population, or 632 million people, are Internet users, while mobile Internet users reached 527 million。

Earlier this month, China's top three telecom operators - China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom -- announced they will cut their marketing budgets, including contract subsidies, by a total of $6.4 billion in the next three years to secure profits。

The decision by the big three was seen as a response to a new taxation policy that took effect June 1. The telecom industry was included in a pilot taxation program to replace business tax with value-added tax (VAT)。

An ABI Research report showed that the average subsidy from operators for Samsung handsets is 84 percent and the average iPhone subsidy is 70 percent, meaning most upfront costs for the two brands were covered by operators. In Beijing and Shanghai, telecom operators even paid to advertise these high-end gadgets。

The big three's budget cuts could possibly affect sales of the two brands, according to market observers, and Apple should lower dependence on operators and explore its own marketing channels。

Apple reported its third-quarter revenues this week. The results in China were unexpectedly robust, where iPhone sales increased nearly 50 percent in the second quarter of this year. Cook was quoted as saying, "China, honestly, was surprising to us," adding that "the unit growth was really off the charts across the board."

以下為中文快訊

重慶北城天街蘋果零售店已在今天早上 10 點正式開業(yè)，而整整一周之后的這個時間點，我們將會看到無錫新店的開業(yè)，這是我們首次看到蘋果連續(xù)兩周在中國大陸開設(shè)零售店。威鋒網(wǎng)此前已經(jīng)為大家預(yù)告過無錫新店的開業(yè)消息，這家店位于江蘇省無錫恒隆廣場，具體地址為無錫市崇安區(qū)人民中路 139 號。

重慶北店和無錫店確認(rèn)開業(yè)之后，目前蘋果在官網(wǎng)上列出的待開業(yè)零售店分別位于鄭州、重慶中環(huán)、天津、重慶南、沈陽、杭州中環(huán)、杭州東以及成都東。假如這些店都能夠在今年順利開業(yè)，意味著中國大陸的蘋果零售店總數(shù)將會在 2015 年到來之前達(dá)到 20 家。值得一提的是，目前國內(nèi)的四大直轄市都已經(jīng)確認(rèn)擁有或即將擁有蘋果零售店。

蘋果新任零售高級副總裁安吉拉·阿倫德茨(Angela Ahrendts)不久前曾表示，中國地區(qū)的零售業(yè)務(wù)是她上任之后的最重要未來規(guī)劃之一，她的話并沒有白說。按照這樣的發(fā)展，2014 年或?qū)⒊蔀樘O果零售店在中國地區(qū)開業(yè)數(shù)量最多的年份。除了蘋果在官網(wǎng)列出的官方信息之外，還有消息稱廣州、南京等地也將會擁有自己的蘋果零售店。