New UK, Montreal stores show Apple's retail strength

Several new Apple Stores are set to open their doors Saturday, including one in Liverpool, England. Housed in the redeveloped Liverpool One Complex, the new store is Apple's 16th in the UK. The company is also opening stores in Montreal, Glendale, Arizona, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Apple's hugely profitable retail stores continue to open at a brisk pace, with the company expecting to have 242 locations operating by year's end – up from 211 in June. At Apple's quarterly conference call Monday, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the retail stores posted a 58-percent year-over-year revenue gain with 1.44 billion in sales. Apple Stores sold 476,000 Macs and provided nearly 600,000 "personal training sessions" in the quarter. The company says it also expects to have 600 "mini" stores operating in Best Buy locations by the end of Summer.

The new Liverpool store opens Saturday with free t-shirts to the first 1000 visitors and a drawing for a "Digital Lifestyle Collection", including a black MacBook and a silver 4G iPod Nano. Also opening on Saturday: a store in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, and South Carolina's first Apple Store, in Charleston. Canada's new Apple Store-Sainte Catherine opens Friday evening in Montreal.

Filed under: Apple
Other story tags: Apple Stores, Beatles, Montreal, Liverpool