17m visit Apple retail

Helped by strong sales of its laptops, Apple's retail segment helped the company achieve its second best quarterly earnings of $472 million by generating revenue of $715 million in the same quarter, representing 29 percent year-over-year growth. Apple said the strong retail performance was fueled by "very strong" MacBook and MacBook Pro sales, strong foot traffic, and the launch of its flagship Fifth Avenue Store in Manhattan. The stores generated $29 million in profit, excluding $148 million in associated manufacturing profit. Apple opened 14 stores in the quarter--ending with 155 total retail stores. With an average of 146 stores open during the quarter, the average quarterly revenue per store was $4.9 million, down slightly from year-ago quarter due to flat iPod sales; however, the company said that strong Mac sales, including availability of more Intel-based Macs, helped the segment rebound 12 percent from a soft March quarter.

Apple's retail stores generated about 17 million customers during the June quarter. Based on its internal survey, Apple said that 50 percent of customers buying Macs were new the platform. Apple's Fifth Avenue Store in Manhattan, which opened in May, has become the company's highest volume store, with Apple recently welcoming its 500,000th visitor. The company said that customers were visiting the store in record numbers around the clock.

by MacNN Staff