Hundreds of eager fans turned up for the opening of Apple's first official store in Singapore yesterday.

At 10am, the doors of Apple Orchard Road, South-east Asia's first official Apple store, were opened, with visitors welcomed by staff who clapped and cheered. The store occupies two levels of the Knightsbridge mall.

On the first level, shoppers can buy Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac and accessories such as phone cases. The second level is dominated by a large space called The Forum, where free hands-on sessions, such as for iPhone photography and iPad illustration, will be conducted.

News of the Apple retail store here first broke in October 2015, after a former tenant of the mall said it was moving out to make way for it. Its opening was highly anticipated, with fans queueing up from as early as last Friday night.

The first to enter the store yesterday was Chinese national Xiang Jiaxin. The 25-year-old, who works in Macau as a hotel concierge, told The Sunday Times that he had been to Apple store openings in Nanjing, Guangzhou and Macau.

One of the main features of the Apple store here is its 36.6m-long glass facade made up of 13 glass panels. Each panel stands at 14m tall.

The store also runs on 100 per cent clean energy using rooftop solar installations.

There are nearly 500 Apple stores around the world in 20 countries, as of last month, with more than a million visitors a day.

Ariffin Jamar