Hungarian Group Hungry for Apple

March 16th, 2008 at 3:00 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

A group of Apple fans in Hungary is hoping to convince the Cupertino company to open its own offices and stores in the country. In an open letter to Apple, the group asked the company to ramp up its presence in Hungary and to bring services available elsewhere, like the iTunes Store, to the country.

"Apple is now a major luxury brand in computer electronics, but not in Hungary. As you may or may not know, there is Apple in California, and there is Apple in Hungary -- and the two are different," the group said. "The brandis representation and distribution in Hungary are exclusively managed by a wholesaler, HDSys LLC (which is owned by MDS Holdings) and by a handful of retail stores who buy from the wholesaler."

The group is hoping that along with the iTunes Store, Apple will give them a localized version of Mac OS X and improve product and parts inventories locally.

"Also, it is your interest to set up your Hungarian company and a branch office, through which you could make deals with CD/DVD publishers, launch the iTunes Store that people actually intend to use (believe me, most of us do), do proper marketing, so that people get to know what Apple really stands for," the group said.

Apple has not responded to the open letter.