Apple Kiosk in Kunming Airport – is this for real?

A while ago, my friend Jess reported on freakishly accurate rip-off Apple stores in Kunming, the provincial capital city of Yunnan in southwestern China. If you remember, employees at these stores actually thought they were working for Apple. On my last visit to China this past March, I came across something new – Apple kiosks in Kunming’s airport. I was told by a US-based Apple employee that though very close to being the real deal, there are several things about these kiosks that are dead give-aways for fakes: 1) Apple provides standard-issue wooden tables, which these kiosks lack; 2) employees all wear the same blue t-shirt (which these were not); 3) Apple doesn’t sell accessory items such as smart covers packaged the way they were bundled here.