Gizmos galore

Walk into this store and you are bound to experience something different. From the minimalist atmosphere, the serenity of its pure white walls and the music playing in the background, to the interesting mix of quality products available, BT Store, is one of the latest innovative additions to Colombo's emergent skyline. Living upto its tagline "elevate your lifestyle", the store is essentially a lifestyle showroom, encouraging a trendsetting existence.

"We give more than just a service. It's more of an intimate tie that's created between the customer and the store. For instance, once a product is purchased from us, the customer returns with a friend, and so loyalty is created," said Buthesh Gunasekera, Brand Sales Director, Apple Product Professional. The store's main clientele includes expat Sri Lankans and foreigners.

According to Wijitha Wijesekera, Strategic and Creative Director, Apple Product Professional, they hope to be sort of an "Apple Store", a common feature in most other countries. "There are airlines and then there's Virgin. There are computers, and then there's Apple. Similarly, BT Store basically hopes to get into a niche of its own, being one of a kind," he said, explaining the concept behind the store. Numerous products from world-renowned brands such as Apple and Palm, to suit every need, are available at the store.

Ranging from desktops, laptops and palmtops, to music, videos, games and books, the array of products available is unending.

One of the fastest moving items in its range is the iPod Shuffle by Apple, the smallest capacity on offer being 1GB, holding up to 240 songs, with the listening time going up to twelve continuous hours.

Then there is the iMac, a classic example of the quality desktop machines available at the store. Featuring a 17, 20 or 24-inch wide screen display, built-in iSight camera enabling instant video conferencing and an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor up to 2.33GHz, its sleek appearance would make it ideally suit even for your living room.

Books available at the store offer an interesting range from "In the Line of Fire" by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, to "Think Like a Billionaire" by Donald Trump, to "4 Inches" foreword by Elton John. "If we see something that would give the cutting edge to someone in a particular profession, we bring it into our store, so you could find some of the newest most up-to-date books available in the market, right here at BT Store," said Wijitha.

The second floor of the store has an online-gaming network with eighteen computers and offers games such as War Craft and Counter Strike. "Ours is probably the second gaming parlour in the world that functions on Macs," said Wijitha, adding that the extremely popular MindHead Game Café in Dehiwela too comes under their management.

So for all those of you who have a soft spot for technical gizmos and gadgets, step into BT Store and explore the unending possibilities of enhancing your lifestyle.