By Graham K. Rogers

A few years ago, there were only a few stores in Bangkok where Apple products were available. Then after the revolution of OS X and iMacs, but before the iPhone, some new stores -- the iStudio -- began to be opened, but mainly in central areas of the city. At that time there were no stores in the western suburbs: Thonburi. That has all changed in recent years.

Bit by bit, the stores have expanded. These now also include iBeat and the U-Store: small kiosk style open outlets specialising in iOS devices; and shops on university campuses.

I feel somewhat vindicated that walking into the Mall, Tha Phra this afternoon, I found a new iStudio store on floor 2 there. This was only opened in the last few days and adds to the open iStudio on the 4th floor Power Mall area also run by comseven who have an expanded Banana IT there on floor 3 too. Not far away, the Rachada/Rajapreuk BTS station is closer to completion.

iStudio, The Mall, Tha Phra

Not many years ago, I suggested to someone connected to Apple here that there was an untapped market over on the Thonburi side, but that was ignored then. The picture is very different these days as Apple products are accessed by more and more consumers.

A couple of months ago I saw a new iStudio, also run by comseven in the recently opened Seacon Square, Bang Khae, while The Mall, Bang Khae also has a comseven iStudio. Not far away, Central Pinklao now has an expanded iStudio -- larger than the first branch a few metres away -- while down in the Power Mall basement at Central is an open-plan iStudio by Copperwired.

iStudio, Seacon Square, Bang Khae

The new shop I saw today was equipped with computers all running OS X, 10.8.2. The iStudio stores do not always have the latest version and it was several weeks, for example, before Mountain Lion was installed on computers here. The iMacs are the old model with the deeper sides, although that is to be expected as the Online store still has these with a delivery day in the future. The staff were helpful, but discreet: had I wanted help it was there. The iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 were being demonstrated near the door by a female assistant and the first display as customers entered was for iPads: the Macs were behind.

In those early (pre-OS X) days, going into a couple of the shops and placing hands on a keyboard might get you snapped at, with one or two shops notorious for unpleasant sales staff. They did not have to worry so much: sales to professionals, who were the main buyers at that time, were almost guaranteed. Fortunately the customer base has changed and Apple retail here has reached out to the new consumers.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.