Apple’s giant new Dubai Apple Store at the Mall of the Emirates has officially opened its doors today as scheduled. Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s head of retail, tweeted the photo above showing the new store’s staff that will be able to “serve in 26 languages.” Ahrendts previously shared multiple photos showing off Apple’s latest flagship retail stores (below) in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which both open today.

Dubai’s store launch follows several years of effort to bring the Apple store experience to the region. Early last year, Apple CEO spent time visiting local electronics vendors after meeting the UAE Prime Minister. Rumors of Apple’s plans to open a retail store at the Mall of the Emirates date back several years.

Then earlier this year media in the region pegged the launch to this fall, although a couple months too soon possibly due to foreign ownership laws. Earlier this month we got the official dates for both stores opening today. We’ve also shared more photos plus video of what the new stores.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id6szBtDgVo&feature=youtu.be]

Angela Ahrendts has also tweeted launch photos from Abu Dhabi:

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