[NewsPoster]

Over the weekend, Apple CEO Tim Cook took a surprise visit to Turkey on Saturday to be present at the two Apple Stores in the country's largest city, Istanbul, to celebrate the arrival of the Apple Watch to the country. The Apple Watch Sport starts at 1,249 Turkish Lira (TRY), which translates to about $450 US at the current exchange rate. The company now has two stores in Istanbul, a flagship store at the Zorlu Center mall, and another at the Akasya Shopping Center.

Cook tweeted to thank customers who turned out in great numbers for the event, attaching a photo of an Apple Store worker helping a customer try on one of the new Apple Watch models. The Watch also debuted for the first time in Russia and New Zealand, as part of another wave of international expansions that should further boost sales of the wearable device.

Cook photo of Istanbul Apple Store

IBM could increase Mac orders as high as 200,000 units

In part due to Apple's stronger new partnership with IBM, the technology giant had previously announced that it expected to deploy some 50,000 or so Mac units throughout the company by the end of this year, following a change of policy that allowed workers to opt for either a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air when choosing a new workstations device. In a new internal company video, however, IBM's CIO Jeff Smith recounts a story telling Apple that IBM may be buying between 150,000 and 200,000 units in the near future, reports MacRumors.

The context of the story Smith recounts seems to indicate that IBM has seen higher-than-initially-expected interest in Macs among its employees, with Smith later saying that he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he estimated about two thirds (and up to 75 percent) of IBM employees may decide to go with a MacBook rather than a convention Windows desktop or notebook in the next round of workstation replacements. Cook allegedly replied "what about the other third?" in response.

[what-a-day]

Somebody has to buy them. Bet IBM gets a good discount to get them off Apples hands.

[Charles Martin]

what-a-day: it pays to read the whole article, not just the headline, before commenting. From the article: "a change of policy that allowed workers to opt for either a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air when choosing a new workstations device." Are you suggesting that these two models don't sell well, because if so you're mistaken.

You're also mistaken in believing that the Retina MacBook (presumably what you thought IBM was buying) is not selling well either. It's handy to remember sometimes that things you might not personally buy or see the value in doesn't apply to anyone else but you, necessarily. Notebooks were up nine percent in the most recent quarter, compared to a 12 percent decline in the PC notebook market, and Cook said during his conference call that the growth was "fueled by great demand for the new MacBook," and that the company was struggling to meet demand for it. It was the newest model for the quarter, so make of that what you will.