Apple Store report

Apple has provided additional details regarding its retail stores, with information included in the Q1 financial reports. Total revenue for all locations set a new record of $1.74 billion for the December quarter, with an average of $7 million attributed to each store. The volume of foot traffic followed the same trend, with a total of 46.7 million visitors for the quarter and over 14,000 people passing through each store every week. Despite the impressive numbers, the segment margin was down to $353 million from $405 million last year, while average revenue per store also suffered because of the difficult retail environment.

Over a half million Macs were purchased at Apple Stores through the same time period, split between Mac veterans and customers entirely new to the platform. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, attributed part of the success to heavy discounting and bundling of products through third-party distributors, particularly with the iPod line.

Apple finished the year with 251 retail locations spread across 10 different countries. Despite the uncertain economy, the company plans to open 25 stores in 2009. Half of the upcoming locations will be located outside of the US.

by MacNN Staff