An amazing amount of hype and fanboyism surrounded the opening of the new Apple store in Sydney this week. About three hours before the opening, with my new camera in hand I went down to take some photos, and to get a taste of the buzz.

The Apple store occupies the lower three floors of a new office tower at 77 King Street (however, Apple note the store as being on George Street as the entrance is there). The façade consists of sheets of plate glass — which according to Ron Johnson, Senior VP of Retail for Apple, are made in Munich and are the largest sheets of plate glass in the world at more than 15 meters in height. There’s no question, it’s an impressive building, and it’s great to see new development bringing some interest to George Street, a street quite bereft of any thing of interest — after all, isn’t World Square a fantastic destination!

I was also curious about the hype — I could understand the fuss, but not get “into it” I’ve never been a huge fan of Apple products themselves, in fact I’ve only owned an Apple iPod shuffle which was a gift, and I don’t use it – the main reason being that I loathe iTunes (oh… and I recently purchased Quicktime Pro – does that count?). However, I am a fan of everything Apple does from a marketing perspective, from advertising, the experience, the website (for its excellent usability).

View the photos on Flickr.