Queues form at studios as Apple Watch arrives in Thailand

The new wearable was also available at Apple Online Store Thailand.
Two iStudios each had seven Apple Watch Edition collections. The Edition collection features eight unique expressions of Apple Watch. Each has a watchcase crafted from 18-karat gold that metallurgists have developed to be up to twice as hard as standard gold.
Sura Khanittaweekul, chief executive officer of Comseven, an Apple Authorised Reseller and operator of iStudio, said Apple Watch was set to double the company’s wearable sales from Bt300 million last year.
“Apple Watch is available in 11 iStudios, six of them operated by us. In the morning, we sold two units of The Edition,” he said.
 “The margin of accessories, at 20-50 per cent, is higher than the margin of devices such as wearables and notebooks, at 10-15 per cent.”
Because of the economic downturn in Thailand, Comseven now expects its revenue this year to grow by only 5 per cent, down from the earlier target of 10 per cent, from last year’s Bt14.1 billion.
“With the economic downturn and purchasing power decreased, we have turned our focus on re-engineering our internal [operations] such as renovating shops, training staff, and improving inventory, rather than burning marketing budgets.
Once purchasing power comes back, we will grow rapidly,” Sura said.
Recently, the company renovated its iStudios at the cost of Bt5 million to Bt10 million per shop, in order to prepare for the launch of Apple Watch as well as to appeal to younger customers.
This year, it plans to establish 40 more stores, comprising two iStudios, 10 iBeats, and the rest Banana IT. He said the investment would be between Bt3 million and Bt10 million per outlet.
“Currently, we have a total of 317 shops across outlet brands. We plan to have 500 shops by 2017, around 70 per cent of them Banana IT and 30 per cent for Apple products under the iBeat and iStudio brands,” Sura said.
The company is studying to expand abroad, potentially to Vietnam and Myanmar, maybe next year.
Comseven operates IT shops under the iStudio, iBeat, U-Store, iCare Service, Banana IT, and Banana Mobile.