Apple closes all its stores outside China until March 27

Apple Scottsdale Fashion Square

Like the measures established by the governments themselves, Apple in the last few weeks has gradually been scaling its decisions in the face of the pandemic of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

While in China all 42 physical stores of the company are already reopened and will gradually start operating at normal times, a few days ago Apple decided to close its 17 locations in Italy and yesterday suspended all programming Today at Apple – including in Brazil.

Now, yes, the most drastic decision came: in a letter published on the Apple website, the CEO Tim Cook announced the closing of * all * of the company’s physical stores outside China (which are almost 470!) until the day March, 27 th.

In the letter, the executive makes it clear that all the thousands of affected Apple employees will receive their wages normally, even with the stores inoperative.

In addition, Apple will double any and all donations made by employees to the cause of COVID-19. So far, the company has already allocated US $ 15 million to fight the virus.

For those who want / need to buy Apple products, their online stores – and the Apple Store app – continue to operate normally around the world. However, given this situation, I think the rumor that a new MacBook Air will be released next week will not be realized. This is not the time.

Just yesterday, Apple also announced that the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020 will be all online.