with a whopping two stores in a country larger than the U.S. Granted, our population is about 1/10th the size and half our land is virtually uninhabitable. But most Canadians aren't interested in a 3-day snowmobile trip to get to the only Apple stores, both in Toronto. (tongue in cheek)

...All of the new ones will be within 10 miles of existing stores.

This is all good. Continuing to expand retail presence in the US is the fastest way to increase market share for the Mac. The more people see them everywhere, the more likely they'll buy them.

With bigger market share, there will be more retail stores elsewhere in the world (including Canada; don't worry, it'll come to Winnipeg, too!). Wherever there's enough customers for Macs and iPods, there will be an Apple store. They simply cannot do it fast enough.

I am curious IF usage of Apple computers goes up around a specific radius of a store. I know that the first few stores opened in popular Apple areas (near colleges, urban, artsy areas).

I live very close to a store (3 miles) in New Jersey. I can speak anectdotaly to the fact that I know six families that switched to MAC because: 1) they needed a new pc, and really did not care what they used 2) Apple store was close by and support was easy 3) walking into a store (which is always crowded) gives you the sense that MACS's are not marginalized, and that there is a rich user base.

All of these families were 15 minutes away from an Apple store.

We know that testudo is very cynical, and apple will not canabalize their own user base. I would love to see one in Center City Philadelphia. There are two in Pittsburgh, but not one in Philadelphia, despite a large potential user base at the university area (Drexel, U of P, Temple...)

Other mindless point to debate: Why is Apple succeeding (apparently) when Gateway failed miserably? Margins? Dedicated base?

Just some meandering thoughts.

Not even a single store in the Lower Mainland...

Heck, I'm hoping for one in the nation's capital, which as everyone who has gone through grade school know is... (no Googling!)

Apple is succeeding because they was much better planning on store location. Gateway store just seemed to be put anywhere. They are also higher margin products in an Apple store.

Apple is also succeeding because the product doesn't last 15 minutes and then explodes into a pile of unimaginable waste (sorry I HAD a Gateway, UGH). Also the products are better designed and are not difficult to use (in general).

It helps that you can buy something at an Apple store and walk out with it, rather than Gateway's model of ordering it in the store and getting it some time later.

Being able to pick one up is definitely a plus (and why those Dell kiosks aren't selling too many computers).

It probably also doesn't hurt that the Apple stores don't look like barns, and they're situated more in malls then stand-alone, so you get lots of casual traffic.

Apple is also succeeding because the product doesn't last 15 minutes and then explodes into a pile of unimaginable waste (sorry I HAD a Gateway, UGH).

Hey, you had yours do that too? A friend of mine went through half-a-dozen monitors over a 12 month period, 3 of which died within the first hour of unboxing and turning it on. Oh, the look on his face, talk about funny... And he had to pay for all that shipping back to the idiots so they could 'fix' it and send back another POS.

Ah, the good ol' days.