When Malaysia Had
No Apple Store

The day Apple came to TRX, what happened to its resellers?

The white shops glowing with the apple logo in Malaysian malls. For a long time, the face of Apple in this country was not Apple itself but its official resellers. In Singapore, the veteran reseller fell the year after Apple’s own store arrived. So what happened in Malaysia when Apple came to TRX?

Shinya Takei, Managing Partner, GASPARD & CO.6 November 2026

An Apple Store with a glowing roof against skyscrapers at dusk — Malaysia’s first Apple Store, floating in TRX at dusk. In 2024, Apple finally arrived. Photo: LegendaryLim, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Official resellers under the apple logo

Walk through any Malaysian shopping mall and you will see several white shops glowing with the apple logo. They are Apple’s official resellers, such as Machines and Switch. They sell the same products as Apple, at the same prices. The only difference is that Apple itself does not run them.

For a long time in Malaysia, these official resellers were the face of Apple. Just before Apple’s own store arrived, so many people asked “aren’t there plenty already?” that several articles were written explaining the difference between resellers and Apple Stores.

Switch at Alamanda mall in Putrajaya. White interior, neat tables, the apple logo. In the corner of the sign, in small letters, is the name of the company that runs it. Not Apple’s own store, but a fully official one.

iStudio in Singapore

Around 2011, when I lived in Singapore, I bought my Apple products at a reseller called iStudio. Singapore had no Apple Store of its own then. Japan had had one in Ginza since 2003, Apple’s first store outside the United States. Picking up a new iPhone at the reseller, I felt a little of what it is like to live in a country without the original. Like slurping ramen at a franchise branch: the taste is the same, but you still want to try the main shop one day.

Singapore’s veteran reseller was EpiCentre. Founded in 2002 as Asia’s first premium reseller, at its peak it had nine stores in Singapore and more in Malaysia. Every Apple fan passed through at least once. Its name means the centre of an earthquake. In time, Apple’s arrival would shake the epicentre itself.

Apple arrives

In 2017, Singapore’s first Apple Store opened on Orchard Road.

The large glass-fronted Apple Store on Orchard Road, seen beyond trees — Apple Orchard Road. In 2017, Apple finally arrived in Singapore. Photo: S5A-0043, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The next year, EpiCentre’s sales slumped and Apple did not renew its reseller status. It sold four stores and its online shop to the operator of its rival iStudio for only about S$516,000. The year after Apple arrived, the veteran fell.

Apple kept going. In 2020 it even floated a spherical Apple Store on the water at Marina Bay Sands.

A glowing spherical Apple Store floating on the water at night — Apple Marina Bay Sands, floating on the water. The apples on resellers’ shelves finally took to the sea. Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Apple comes to TRX

Apple arrived in Kuala Lumpur on 22 June 2024, at The Exchange shopping mall in TRX, the new international financial district. Its slogan before opening was “Jom!”, Malay for “let’s go”. Rather a friendly greeting for Apple. On opening morning, more than a thousand people queued. They obediently went.

An Apple Store before opening with a large “JOM” behind the glass — “JOM” on the Apple Store before opening. Roughly “here we go!”. Photo: Stress 043, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

TRX is the new financial district Kuala Lumpur built as the nation’s showcase. In No. 21, I wrote about once admiring Raffles Place simply because it seemed like a cool financial district. To my eyes, TRX looks like Kuala Lumpur’s Raffles Place. Fourteen years on, I am still starstruck.

A slender skyscraper rising into a blue sky — The face of TRX, the Exchange 106 tower. Looking up hurts the neck a little. Photo: Ahmad Ali Karim, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

TRX is also where money gathers. Here is one day in TRX, in three photos.

A shopping mall atrium with dozens of green vine columns hanging down — The atrium of The Exchange. Dozens of green columns hang from the ceiling. Less a mall than a jungle in the air.

At Kanbe, a ramen shop on the mall’s Park Level, tsukemen and gyoza come to over ¥3,000. By Japanese standards, eye-watering. Yet the shop was full of affluent Malaysians. A shop named after a famous Sengoku-era strategist has conquered the stomachs of TRX. A district where ramen becomes fine dining: that is TRX today.

A counter with condiment pots and a cook boiling noodles in the open kitchen behind — The counter of a full ramen shop. Vinegar, gyoza sauce, garlic. Japanese ramen manners exported intact. Only the price seems to have grown a little on the way.

Banks gather here too. In 2022, HSBC moved its Malaysian head office to Menara IQ in TRX. Upstairs there is also a lounge for its top-tier customers.

A bank lounge with leather sofas and marble tables, overlooking the city through large windows — HSBC’s lounge for Premier Elite customers. Golden light cascades from the ceiling like a waterfall. Outside, Kuala Lumpur and the hills. Closer to an airport lounge than a bank.

By the way, the iPhone Duo photo in No. 22 was also taken at this TRX store, on launch day. I did not buy one.

The ceiling of an Apple Store, with light layered like square ripples — The ceiling of Apple TRX. A square light in the middle of rippling light. More art museum than shop. Photo: *angys*, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In Singapore, the veteran reseller fell the year after Apple arrived. In Malaysia, resellers upgraded before Apple came.

Resellers who moved first

So what happened to Malaysia’s resellers? Did they go the way of Singapore’s veteran? No.

Malaysia’s resellers upgraded before Apple arrived. In 2022, Machines opened Southeast Asia’s first Apple Premium Partner store at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, a higher-tier shop with Apple-certified staff. By June 2024, when Apple came to TRX, it had five such stores. Switch opened one at Sunway Pyramid in July 2023. Hearing Apple’s footsteps, they polished their shoes first.

Even with Apple here, the white shops of Machines and Switch still glow all over town. Whether it is Apple or a reseller matters less than whether it is nearby. That, it seems, is how local customers choose.

A business view

This is not just about Apple. Any company acting as an agent or reseller for a foreign brand will one day face the day the brand comes in directly. In Japan too, it is common for a foreign brand to set up a Japanese subsidiary and end a long-standing agency agreement. From the contrasting fates in Singapore and Malaysia, here are three lessons.

First, join the brand rather than fight it. Malaysia’s resellers upgraded to Apple-certified premium stores before Apple arrived. In Apple’s eyes they became partners, not rivals to push out. Singapore’s veteran, in the end, did not have its status renewed.

Second, hold the places the brand will not go. The biggest difference between Singapore and Malaysia may simply be size. Singapore is a little larger than Tokyo’s 23 wards. With three Apple Stores there, at Orchard Road, Jewel Changi Airport and Marina Bay Sands, Apple is a short train ride from anywhere. Resellers had nowhere to hide.

Malaysia, by contrast, is nearly 90% the size of Japan, and Apple still has only one store, at TRX. In August 2026, Apple was reported to be hiring 22 store staff in Putrajaya, fuelling rumours of a second store there: the very town of the Alamanda mall where I photographed Switch. IOI City Mall, named as a candidate site, already has a Machines premium store. Apple’s footsteps are right next to the resellers. Even so, a second store would make just two in the whole country. Lining a country the size of Japan with Apple Stores does not pay, even for Apple. Resellers are already in suburban malls like Alamanda and in regional towns where Apple is unlikely to go. Many customers will not travel to central Kuala Lumpur if they can buy near home. Malaysia’s resellers have plenty of room to survive.

Area per official store. The tiny gold dot is Singapore. Little room for resellers there; plenty in Malaysia.

Third, do not compete on price and range. An iPhone costs the same wherever you buy it. Sell the same thing at the same price as Apple, and customers go to Apple. The difference lies in the effort Apple finds hard: fast repairs, bulk orders for companies, staff who know you. Singapore’s veteran failed to differentiate there and lost fighting Apple for the same customers.

In short, the brand’s arrival is not a death sentence for its agents but a trailer. If you know it is coming, you can prepare.

You’ve Got Gaspard

In You’ve Got Mail, a big bookstore chain opens nearby, and the small children’s bookshop run by Meg Ryan’s character eventually closes. I assumed the story of Apple and its resellers would end the same way.

But Malaysia’s resellers did not close. Right next to Apple, their white shops still glow today. There are ways for small shops not to lose to big ones, and the answer was written not in the film but in Kuala Lumpur’s shopping malls.

Incidentally, though I have decided not to buy iPhones, Macs are another matter. As I wrote in No. 17, I keep pouring a considerable sum into Macs, unrepentant. I have an order in at the TRX store right now and am counting the days to pick-up. I am at the TRX store all the time, and in Singapore I drop by Orchard Road and Marina Bay too. To Apple, I must be a slightly odd regular who does not buy iPhones.

Apple’s own store or a reseller, the apple logo draws me in either way. My wallet loosens about equally in front of both.