View this article at: http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/10/18/apple.retail.surges/ Wednesday, Oct 18, 2006 6:25pm Apple retail: 50% of sales to switchers Apple had another strong retail quarter with record Mac sales at its retail stores--an increase of 60 percent over the year-ago quarter; Apple executives said that 20 million people visited its retail stores during the September quarter, helping the company post a profit of $546 million. Apple said it added 10 new retail stores during the quarter for a total of 165 stores open by the quarter's end and an average of 158 stores during the quarter. While same-store sales increased slightly, the number of iPods sold in its retail stores declined due to the ever-expanding number of points of sale for the popular music device--numbering about 40,000 worldwide. The company said that it was the first time that more half of its retail Mac sales--totaling 323,000 from its retail stores--were to "switchers", a term used for users new to the Mac platform. During the three-month period, each store added about 1,000 users to platform. Average store revenue was $4.6 million and the retail division posted a $50 million operating profit. Executives told investors that it had 5,800 retail store employees.