April is right now Apple's goal to start opening some of its stores around the world, but this it will depend on many factors It is not something confirmed although it is true that this comes from an internal statement from Apple's vice president of Retail + People, Deirdre O'Brien.
O'Brien, explains in this internal document that for now they are holding up quite well and employees can perform work from home until next April 5 which is when the possibility of opening stores outside of China will begin to be reassessed, slowly but steadily.
Bloomberg explains that telecommuting from home doesn't stop at Apple and O'Brien sent an email to the employees of these stores:
Our retail stores outside of China will begin to reopen in a staggered and orderly fashion. At this time, we anticipate that some of our stores may open sometime in the first half of April, depending on some factors that will be assessed with the authorities and the community.
In China, each of the 42 stores that the company has in the country were closed as a preventive measure against the pandemic and a few weeks ago they began to reopen in a staggered manner after contrasting and collecting all the information on Covid-19 in the country. Now it is the other way around and the rest of the physical stores that Apple has outside of China are completely closed to the public until the virus loses strength. The 458 stores that the firm has outside of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will remain closed "until further notice" but during the next month of April the opening of any of them will begin to be valued whenever possible.
