Tim Cook and other top executives of Apple are expected to visit Turkey in early 2014 to mark the opening of the country's first Apple store, and at the same time discuss an iPad deal worth $4 billion with President Abdullah Gul.
Apple is set to open its first brink-and-mortar store in Turkey's capital city Istanbul in early February 2014. The first Apple store in Turkey will cover 21,500-square-foot of space and is said to feature an all-glass cube-like cap structure, which will be very similar to the landmark store in Fifth Avenue, New York.
As part of the iPad negotiations, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also visited Apple's headquarters in May this year. The $4 billion iPad deal is said to be Turkey's educational initiative under the "FATIH Project."
The FATIH Project is a Turkish government initiative that may see increased use of technology in the country's schools. As part of the program the Turkish government is initially planning to buy around 10.6 million tablets followed by purchase of another 2.5 million devices. The FATIH project is expected to roll out in phases over a period of four years.
In a separate development, the long-awaited Apple and China Mobile deal has also become official, with both the companies signing a multi-year contract, which will allow China Mobile to sell Apple's latest iPhones, the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. The demand for iPhones is quite high in China and with a subscriber base of over 760 million, China Mobile may help Apple to grab a major chunk of the country's smartphone market. Analysts suggest that the latest partnership will see Apple generate additional revenue of $9 to $10 by selling around 17 million iPhones in 2014.
