Apple online store celebrates 10 years

The online Apple store is celebrating its 10th year in operation, having first launched the US store on November 10th, 1997. WebObjects – one of the products acquired from NeXT – formed the backbone for the store, having already been used as the infrastructure for the Dell store for almost a year prior, according to setteB.IT. Selling then-current products, such as the beige G3 towers and Mac OS 8, Steve Jobs had yet to introduce the revolutionary iMac and iPod. Despite this, the online store generated 4.4 million hits and $500,000 in its first 12 hours of operation. In May 1998, the online store allowed Apple to move $1.9 million, and sold its first million through the education store.

The first store was only available to US customers, but in May 1998, Apple had opened the first international store in the UK, with the Swedish store to follow in September. Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, and Italy were next, with the respective stores opened in January 1999. The store came to Japan in February of 1999, with the Austrian and Swiss stores in March of that year.

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