By Patrick Avenell

Apple Australia will soon be opening its third Melbourne store in the northwestern area of the greater metropolitan region. This store will join existing Apple Retail Stores in Doncaster and Southland.

Although Current.com.au is unable to confirm the exact location – Apple PR today repeated its mantra of people unable to answer forward looking questions – we have reasons to believe it will be in the Highpoint shopping centre in Maribyrnong.

This shopping centre is currently home to Dick Smith, JB Hi-Fi, Myer and Target stores, among hundreds of others. Furthermore, Highpoint fits the Apple Retail Store profile of large malls in areas with high foot traffic.

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As previously revealed on Current.com.au, Apple is on a massive Retail Store drive in Australia, with an outlet in Canberra also due to open soon, and rumours of more stores for Brisbane and Perth.

Last month, Apple opened its second store in the Sydney CBD, at the Broadway shopping complex on Parramatta Road.

All told, Apple currently has 15 operational Retail Stores in Australia: 8 in New South Wales, 3 in Queensland, 3 in Victoria and 1 in Western Australia.

The new stores in Melbourne and Canberra will bring the total figure to 17.

This nascent saturation of the capital city market will pressure its main rival, Samsung, to accelerate its own store network rollout. Samsung recently opened its first dedicated brand store, on George Street in Sydney, to furious excitement and generally positive consumer feedback.