Hyderabad, March 5, 2008 (IANS)

Reliance digital, the IT consumer durable arm of Reliance Retail, plans to open 150 digital stores and 60 iStores or Apple stores across the country. While digital stores offer a wide range of consumer durables, iStores are exclusively for Apple's products for professional and consumer segments. Launching its second iStore here, the company officials said 50 to 60 such stores would be rolled out in 20 top cities in the next 18 months while 150 digital stores would come up over the next two to three years.

Spread over 2,875 sq ft, the iStore offers the entire range of Apple products for professional and consumer segments such as iMac consumer desktop computers, MacBook consumer notebooks, Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, iPods and entire suite of Mac software along with over 500 accessories and peripherals.

Claimed to be India's first store exclusively for Apple products, it is the second iStore after Bangalore. Among the products offered at iStore is MacBook Air, the world's thinnest notebook computer priced at Rs.99,000. Ajay Baijal, president and CEO of Reliance Digital, told newsmen on the occasion that they planned to open 20 such stores this year. "Apple is one of the iconic bands and offers most innovative products. We are the first company to offer these products in retail," he said.

Each iStore will have 2,000 to 3,000 sq ft area and will be set up at a cost of Rs.7-8 million.

"Our endeavour is to be competitive and offer installation and best service," he said pointing out that Apple trained the store employees.

The Reliance Digital stores will have a space of 20,000 to 25,000 sq ft each and will offer wide range of consumer durables from different brands. The investment in each of these stores (excluding land) will be Rs.3,000 per sq ft while the company expects a business of Rs.50,000 to Rs.60,000 per sq ft. The digital business is expected to be 10% of the total revenues of Reliance Retail.

Reliance Retail Ltd is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, India's largest private sector company. Started in November 2006, it operates over 500 stores in over 49 cities. Its formats cover groceries, vegetables, fruits, apparels, wellness products, consumer durables and IT products, Apple products, footwear, jewellery and music.