Biggest US Apple retail store opens today
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 15, 2008 at 10:16am
Ron Johnson, the senior vice president who leads Apple’s retail strategy, told Reuters on the sidelines of a news briefing that international retail presence would be an important driver of future sales.
“Today, Apple is about 50 percent international revenue and about 50 percent in the U.S.,” he said, standing next to a large Apple icon hanging in the storefront of the new Apple Store, Boylston Street, in Boston, Massachusetts. “We increasingly want to get our retail presence out in the other countries.”
Johnson told Reuters that the Boston store reflects Apple’s plans to expand retail ventures at home and abroad. The Apple Store Boylston Street, which opens today, is Apple’s largest store in the US with two floors of Macs, iPhones and iPods for customers to experience hands-on, as well as a top floor dedicated to services including the Genius Bar and personal training through Apple’s popular One to One program.
The Apple Store Boylston Street also introduces Pro Labs to Boston, offering free, in-depth training on Apple’s pro applications including Final Cut Pro. The staff includes more than 165 Specialists, Geniuses and Creatives.
The Apple Store Boylston Street is located at 815 Boylston Street, convenient to the Prudential Center and Copley Square, the Berklee School of Music and Fenway Park. It joins eight existing Apple retail stores in Massachusetts including stores in Cambridge, Chestnut Hill, Burlington and Hingham.
Nearly 350 million people on three continents have visited Apple retail stores since they opened in May 2001. Apple now operates 210 stores in five countries including the US, UK, Japan, Canada and Italy. Last quarter Apple retail stores delivered more than 580,000 one-hour personal training sessions through its One to One program.
In its latest financial quarter to March 29, Apple’s store sales leapt 74 percent in dollar terms to nearly $1.5 billion. Average revenue per store in the quarter reached $7.1 million, up 48 percent from $4.8 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, operating profits at the stores more than doubled, to $334 million in the quarter.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
