Apple has announced that it has expanded its online stores with a new portal for customers based in China. The company is offering free shipping on everything in the store, as the products are already manufactured by local suppliers. Products include Mac computers, iPods, iPads and the iPhone 4, which was recently made available at Apple's brick-and-mortar stores.
Apple's online store has been temporarily taken down for updating, a splash page reads. The maintenance comes in advance of today's WWDC keynote by CEO Steve Jobs, scheduled for 10AM Pacific time. Apple is then widely expected to announce a new 3G iPhone, and possibly other new hardware, including a rumored touch tablet that would measure between 4 and 7 inches. The upgraded iPhone is expected to ship later this month.
Traffic to Apple's website grew 18 percent over the same period last year, according to Nielsen Online. The Cupertino-based company's traffic jumped from a three-month average monthly unique audience of just under 40 million to 46.8 million. Statistics reveal a 14 percent growth in total minutes spent at Apple's website this year over last year, from 8.8 billion minutes in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.
