When Apple returned to post-Apartheid South Africa Apple's then-Regional Manager CEMEA, Peter Dewald said, "Apple has been very satisfied by the success of its return to South Africa, which we view as one of the most promising emerging markets within EMEA's responsibility."

Bruno Verolini, country manager of Apple South Africa, echoed Dewald's enthusiasm. "Since returning to South Africa, Apple has made significant progress in many areas of traditional strength and established a highly viable dealer channel to meet the demands of a growing marketplace. Already, Apple products are sold through the South African office to more than a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa."

Since renewing its commitment to post-Apartheid Africa, Apple has lacked a decisive plan to court the African market. Diego Piacentini, the Vice-president of Sales and General Manager of Apple Africa, Europe and the Middle East left the company to work for Amazon.com, allegedly out of frustration over Apple's lack of an effective strategy in Africa as well as Europe and the Middle East (Apple's problems in Europe are well documented-see Summer issue of MacDirectory).

Does Apple have an African strategy? Apple's marketing manager Brian Seligman oversees the company's marketing mix - products, pricing, promotion, service and customer satisfaction - in South Africa.

"Apple does not release market share data on an individual country basis," he told MacDirectory. "Needless to say, the South African market is fairly small, but is growing significantly, and is important to Apple." Apple's South African manager Bruno Verolini said, "Apple will continue its role as a sales and marketing office. We see the change as a positive development offering us the opportunity to work more closely with our distribution partners as they begin to play an increasing role in implementing Apple's marketing strategy."

"We still see huge potential in the development of the media markets, and with the appointment of a broad based distributor, we now have the right partner to strengthen our retail presence and address a growing consumer market."