As you've probably guessed, I'm in holidays, and that's why I haven't updated the site for a while. Last week, I had the chance to visit something that looks like an Apple Store in Athens.

Although it has the same look as an Apple Store, it actually is not a store but an "Apple Store Demo Centre", as it is impossible to buy anything there. The iPod 4G, the iPod mini, Airport Extreme and the whole Macintosh offering, including the new PowerMac G5 with a new 23" Cinema display, were available to demo.

The salesperson that was there explained to me that these stores are not owned by Apple but by Rainbow Computer [1] which is the Greek distribution partner for Apple in Greece. That's the reason why they're not able to sell Apple products and they're not called "Apple Stores".

Rainbow Computer will offer free software support services through this "Apple Store Demo Centre" to foreigners visiting Greece for the Olympic Games, as described in this page [2], while Apple Greece will also provide free hardware support. Note also that both www.rainbow.gr [3] and www.apple.com.gr [4] now link to Rainbow Computer's web site.

The "Applestore Demo Centre" I visited is located at 32 Akadimias Street in Athens, near Sintagma Place. This is not the first demo area though. Rainbow opened it's first one more than two years ago.

So here are the pictures outside [5] the Demo Centre, the window [6] from outside, inside on the left [7] and inside on the right [8].