Apple Retail Stores achieve highest quarterly revenue ever

[AppleInsider]

New customers and new computers helped drive a record-setting quarter for Apple's Retail Stores, bringing in the company's highest quarterly revenue ever.

With its stores long geared toward "switchers," with attractive layouts, knowledgeable staff, and easily accessible assistance, Apple was able to announce again that half the new Macs sold at the company's stores in the September quarter went to new customers.

Revenue climbed almost nine percent -- to $1.87 billion -- from $1.72 billion a year ago. The company opened 15 new locations, bumping its international total to 273 storefronts. Apple retail employees welcomed almost 46 million visitors through the doors during the quarter compared to 42.7 million one year ago.

The stores are also highly lucrative. With an average of 262 open during the quarter, average revenue was $7.1 million per store, which Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer noted represents a 20% increase internationally.

This comes after earlier reports predicted that the stores, which had been losing revenue, could rebound before the end of the year.

More stores coming

After opening 26 new stores in the last year and remodeling 72 others, Apple will open its first two stores in France next month. Stateside, another high-profile New York store will open its doors on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Oppenheimer told investors and journalists during Monday's conference call that the company is seeing strong results from its remodeled stores and Apple is focused on providing "the best customer service experience in the industry, bar none."

Apple continues to command respect in the industry for the success of its retail strategy. Microsoft recently attempted to "buy" Apple Store employees as a part of an attempt to enter the retail landscape. Meanwhile, entertainment giant Disney has been leaning on Steve Jobs for help invigorating its existing retail offerings using lessons from Apple's history.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[brucep]

the apple stores are great
yet in ten yrs they will be far better than they are now

[BDBLACK]

Didn't you guys all hear?! It's all a rounding error. :P

[-AG-]

wish we had an official apple store here.

Instead we have to deal with resellers that are rude and obnoxious.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by BDBLACK

Didn't you guys all hear?! It's all a rounding error. :P

It's a rounding error alright... And it was just rounded up, waaaaaaaay up!

In completely unrelated news, Reuter's reports that Barnes & Noble announces their "Nook" tomorrow...

Barnes & Noble e-reader has color, $259 price: report
Mon, Oct 19 19:55 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The new electronic reader from Barnes & Noble Inc, expected to launch on Tuesday, features color, a touchscreen display and the same price tag as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The device, which the newspaper said was called "Nook," will compete with the Kindle and Sony Corp's Sony Reader among other electronic readers that allow users to read digital content on a tablet-sized device.

The Journal said the details came from a print advertisement slated for the New York Times' October 25 edition.

This can only lead to endless "nookie" jokes.

[brucep]

yet even on a great news day the trolls do they work

this was the best 1/4 ever for apple and there stores area pleasure to visit

[swimmerguyman]

Will the upcoming Microsoft stores pose any real threat to the Apple stores and their rebounding revenue?

[zindako]

I am quite sure Apple has nothing to worry about microsoft competing with them on the brick and mortar side of the computer retail business.

[NasserAE]

Originally Posted by brucep

yet even on a great news day the trolls do they work

this was the best 1/4 ever for apple and there stores area pleasure to visit

They disappear when Apple announce their quarterly results. Don't worry, they will come tomorrow and start trolling again and tell us all how Apple is doomed and will be destroyed eventually

I really enjoyed this afternoon news.

[davebarnes]

THE metric for retail is "same store revenue".
For Apple, it fell.
Not good.

[sheff]

Love coming to the apple store. Genius support has saved me $250 real dollars (they replaced my chipping macbook's parts for free), and countless more time and effort in resolving questions I had during my transition to the mac.
These store made me feel good giving my money to Apple, something I can't say about countless hours I spent working out my issues with a Dell guy in India...

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

THE metric for retail is "same store revenue".
For Apple, it fell.
Not good.

What do you expect when comparing pre- and post- meltdown quarters.
Sure the same store may not have brought in as much revenue as last year but considering that we are living in very different times, the results are nothing short of amazing.

Also don't forget that they remodeled 72 stores in the past year.
One of the stores near me was closed for almost a month.

[ghostface147]

McAllen, TX anyone? La Plaza Mall has some space to build out.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella

What do you expect when comparing pre- and post- meltdown quarters.
Sure the same store may not have brought in as much revenue as last year but considering that we are living in very different times, the results are nothing short of amazing.

Also don't forget that they remodeled 72 stores in the past year.
One of the stores near me was closed for almost a month.

And the more stores that open we shouldn’t be surprised to see a smaller average revenue per sotre, especially average revenue per square feet.

[diamondgeeza]

Originally Posted by -AG-

wish we had an official apple store here.

Instead we have to deal with resellers that are rude and obnoxious.

I hear you. In london once I took my MBP into micro anvika (reseller) as it didn't have the latest ilife. They refused to give it to me even though apple said they had to. They even refused to call apple when I asked them to confirm. My colleague and I had dropped over 4000 quid there the day before. About time these guys lost their dealership me thinks, was by far not the first time.

I even remember my boss being told there were no Tibook 500Mhz in the country so they could sell him a 400MHz. Of course when I checked the apple store they were in stock. liars and thieves.

Oh and another one when I upgraded his ram once I noticed they had broken one of the plastic tabs when upgrading before. Nice of them to repair it rather than just put it book together and say everything is fine.

[David Steuber]

Originally Posted by diamondgeeza

I hear you. In london once I took my MBP into micro anvika (reseller) as it didn't have the latest ilife. They refused to give it to me even though apple said they had to. They even refused to call apple when I asked them to confirm. My colleague and I had dropped over 4000 quid there the day before. About time these guys lost their dealership me thinks, was by far not the first time.

I even remember my boss being told there were no Tibook 500Mhz in the country so they could sell him a 400MHz. Of course when I checked the apple store they were in stock. liars and thieves.

Oh and another one when I upgraded his ram once I noticed they had broken one of the plastic tabs when upgrading before. Nice of them to repair it rather than just put it book together and say everything is fine.

Poor resellers are the reason why Apple Stores even exist. If Apple didn't start their own branded chain of stores, they would probably be a forgotten company now.

The rate Apple is opening stores is pretty quick. I would hate to see them open too many and then start having to close them like Gateway 2000 did. However, they can go and dump the resellers in order of most complaints as they work their way to becoming the only brick and mortar source for their product.

I was so skeptical at the opening of the first store. I thought it was a suicide move or at least a very desperate one from a dying company. Now they are able to continue to make good revenues in a recessionary economy. That speaks volumes.

Also my new iMac + 24" LED Display for dual head goodness give me a nice warm feeling. With winter coming, the heat that radiates off of those two displays is comforting!

[auxlepli]

Like with Apple computers, I have yet to have a bad experience at an Apple store. The people are nice, friendly, helpful and they never presure me to buy something.

[Galley]

Still waiting on an Apple Store to open here in Greenville, SC. It's been rumored for years. C'mon, Apple, we've got one of the best Mac User Groups in the country, and a metro area of more than one million people!

[BenRoethig]

What we need is more of them and I don't mean one on every street corner in the Big Apple, L.A., or Chicago. How about filling in some of those gaps? Especially since the support network is pretty much AppleStore based now.