June 17 - 1:35pm EDT   Apple today said it would open its retail stores at 7 a.m. local time on Friday, June 19 -- one hour earlier than its previously announced time of 8 a.m. The new time is the same as launch time of the new iPhone 3G S at AT&T retail stores, which also open at 7 a.m.; the carrier, however, will only distribute the devices to owners who pre-ordered the device through its direct fulfillment service and said that other customers will only be able to purchase the phones starting at 9 a.m., according to the same report by News.com. [full story]

January 27 - 7:10pm EST   An Apple Store located at The Village in the Sanlitun area of Beijing on Saturday suffered a flood that spread water across part of the ground level of the tri-level retail space. One manager claimed the water was from a fire hydrant malfunction, although the incident is currently still under investigation by the property management team. The store did manage to keep two levels running as normal through the flood, with access only blocked to the affected area. [full story]

January 21 - 10:40pm EST   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. [full story]

December 6 - 10:05pm EST   The grand opening of Apple's Munich store drew huge crowds Saturday morning, with an estimated 4,000 visitors in the first few hours, according to ifoAppleStore. People began waiting in line as early as 1:30 a.m. local time, well before the 10:00 a.m. door opening. Apple gave away 2,500 t-shirts to the first visitors, as a promotion to fill the store on the first day. High-profile city officials and business representatives were invited to a VIP reception on Friday evening. [full story]

November 4 - 11:00am EST   Apple has abandoned any plans for a store on West 34th street in Manhattan, claims the New York Post. Apple currently leases 21-25 on West 34th, which is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, and within a short distance of the Empire State Building. The real estate is capable of supporting up to 18,000 square feet, but Apple is said to have lost interest in establishing a store on the site, and is presently looking to sub-lease through Robert K. Futterman. RKF's website lists availability starting April 1st 2009, for a maximum period of 13 years. [full story]

September 23 - 1:00pm EDT   This week marks a slew of Apple Store openings, as Israel's first Apple location, launched by iDigital, opened Sunday, Geneva and Bristol open Thursday, Friday sees Zurich's Glattzentrum shopping center open and Honolulu's third store arrives Saturday alongside Calgary. Geneva opens four days earlier than originally predicted, and will be located on the Rue de Rive. Geneva and Zurich's Glattzentrum are the second and third Swiss Apple Store. [full story]

July 28 - 10:20pm EDT   Apple recently updated its iPhone availability page availability page, stating, "To accommodate demand for iPhone 3G, all Apple Retail Stores will now open at 8:00 a.m. every day but Sunday. We're also adding staff to help you get up and running as quickly as possible." The demand for the iPhone 3G has been excessive and Apple's retail stores have been flooded with long lines for iPhones across the United States. Apple has responded to this by increasing hours and staffing to help more customers each day. [full story]

July 25 - 11:20pm EDT   Top Muffin has assembled a persistent listing of iPhone availability at Apple stores throughout the country using a statistical tracking system published by Apple. As of this writing, Top Muffin reveals that only 15 stores in the US are completely without iPhone stock, with the rest alleging stock of either the 8GB, 16GB White, and 16GB Black models. The three Manhattan flagship stores – West 14th, 5th Avenue, and SoHo – all show stock of all three models. [full story]

July 22 - 6:45pm EDT   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. [full story]

July 21 - 1:15am EDT   In less than 10 days since its problem-plagued launch, Apple has sold out of stock of iPhones in all of its stores except three, including every state except New York, California, and New Hampshire. Apple notes that on Monday none of its 137 locations in the US will have stock of the 8GB iPhone and that the only location to have the 16GB black iPhone will be its retail store in Pleasanton, California (Stoneridge Mall). The only other two stores to have stock of the iPhone are the retail locations in Salem, New Hampshire (Rockingham Park) and New York City (Fifth Avenue) -- both of which only have the 16GB white iPhone model. [full story]

June 9 - 2:05am EDT  Mac fans in Australia have more than just tomorrow’s Keynote to look forward to, as the country’s first Apple Store opens later this month. The Sydney Morning Herald says the store will be one of only three in the world spread out over three stories, that it will house the largest "Genius Bar" in the world, and that will offer Apple's Pro Lab service, which provides in-depth training to professional users (Pro Lab services are only available in two other Apple Stores - at one of its flagship stores in New York and in the recently opened Boston flagship store). In an exclusive interview with the newspaper, Apple’s Senior Vice President Ron Johnson said it will be "a breathtaking store,” with some ... [full story]

May 12 - 11:05am EDT   Investment firm Piper Jaffray on Monday released a note saying it expects a 3G iPhone by mid-June, based on an almost complete drought of current generation iPhone stock. The note mentions that out of 11 US stores, only six had stock of the iPhone, five of which had more than five units. The lack of stock is also reflected in the UK, with O2 saying the device is unavailable, while the US Apple Store changed availability to "Currently Unavailable". [full story]

April 22 - 4:40pm EDT   According to new data from Nielsen Online, Web traffic to the Apple Inc's sites collectivly grew 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2008, from a three-month average monthly unique audience of 42.9 million to 48.4 million. Total minutes spent on the site grew 12 percent year over year, from 9.4 billion in Q1 2007 to 10.5 billion in Q1 2008, while total purchases at The Apple Store grew 32 percent month over month, from 322,000 purchases in January 2008 to 424,000 purchases in February 2008. iTunes, Apple Store and QuickTime were the top three fastest growing Apple Computer Web channels year over year in Q1 2008 [full story]

April 15 - 3:15pm EDT   The long-awaited NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT upgrade for Mac Pros has been released. The graphics card features 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory, uses the PCI Express interface, and includes two dual-link DVI ports, and is capable of driving up to two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays. It requires a Mac Pro (bus speed 1.33GHz) with PCI-Express. The card is priced at $280 and can be purchased as a standalone, user-installable item or as a build-to-order option for Early 2008 Mac Pros through the online Apple Store. Controversy ensued when Apple introduced this upgrade card as an option available exclusively to newly purchased Mac Pros in January. At the time, users presented ... [full story]

April 10 - 4:05pm EDT   Apple is continuing its expansion of its successful retail stores, according to ifoAppleStore. The report indicates that Apple plans to open yet another retail store in the Bay Area, this one inside the Hillsdale Shopping Center, a 1950s-era enclosed mall that is privately owned by the Bohannon family. The shopping center features more than 130 shops over 1.3 million square-feet. Other Apple stores in the area include San Francisco (23 miles north), Stonestown (20 miles N.), Burlingame (4 miles N.), Palo Alto/Stanford (12 miles S.), and Valley Fair (30 miles S.). Apple also plans a new store in Toronto at the Fairview Mall by November. The mall is located along Highway ... [full story]