Apple confirms Regent Street store to open this year

Apple has confirmed it will open its first UK store this year.

The flagship store will open on Regent Street before the end of the year, according to Apple. Estimates of late November - in time for an iPod-fuelled Christmas spending boom - are being bandied around by the Mac Mafia. However, Cupertino is keeping mum on an official opening date, saying only: "We have not announced the official opening date apart from to say the store will open this calendar year."

Expect to see Apple's hardware and software on sale - as well as the "whole iPod family".

While the Regent Street unveiling will mark Apple's first footprint in Blighty, the company already has a network of stores in the US and Japan. If the recent opening of Apple's first Far East store - in the Ginza district of Tokyo - is anything to go by, Regent Street will be deluged by the Mac faithful.

Some enthusiasts slept outside the store the night before the shop was due to open to be first to get their hands on an iPod.

The last quarter of this year will see a flurry of activity from Apple. Jobs' lot will have a Japanese opening scheduled for 28 August in Shinsaibashi and another in Pittsburgh on 4 September.