The ifo AppleStore site is a great place for information. Apple has been releasing information on the stores in a very tight lipped manner. The statements of the executives had been fairly accurate until this latest announcement by CFO Anderson about there being 74 stores before Thanksgiving. Two of the stores, the Alpharetta and Tucson stores were delayed until this month for reasons that remain unknown.
If you want to know about possible sites for future stores the map ITR 81 has posted is a good resource but there are also a few trends that might help. First it is obvious that Apple's decision on store placement have to do where there is the greatest population. If you look at the metropolitan areas with the greatest populations in the US you get these stats:
1 - of the 35 largest metropolitan areas in the US (not counting Puerto Rico) 29 of them have an Apple store or will have before May 2004.
2 - of the 50 largest metropolitan areas 35 have or will have a store by the same time frame.
3 - of the 7 largest metropolitan areas 6 have at least 4 stores with Philadelphia the only one with only two.
Pittsburgh is the largest metro area without an Apple store. The smallest to date will be #57 largest area, Tucson (or if you believe the rumors Syracuse or Spanish Fort - the last a very speculative one.)
It is clear that Apple has made a decision to concentrate the stores in the areas with the greatest population and not to cover the country in terms of each state. Right now 27 of the 50 states have a store.
The "high profile" stores are extremely expensive for Apple (look to Apple's Quarterly statements on their website for information on just how expensive) and the number of sites for such stores (currently New York, LA, Chicago, and soon to be San Francisco in the US and Tokyo and soon to be Osaka in Japan) is very limited according to Ron Johnson (head of Apple's retail strategy.) My guess of the US locations only Washington, Philadelphia, or Boston has much chance of such a store soon. The rumored London (Regent Street) store will be a high profile location as well as any other new foreign locations. What this means is it is likely that there will be only two to three a year tops.
As to the other stores, Apples has place an emphasis on making the stores profitable unlike the effort of Gateway that over expanded and just about drove the company to financial ruin. It has been a consistent approximately 20 stores a year so far, but that will not mean a move to the kind of numbers Gateway has now (about 175, if I remember right).
One way to know about future sites is to look to locations of Mall property owners that Apple has already opened stores with. Apple has made deals with the mall developers Simon, Westfield, and Macerich, so if you have one of these malls near you your odds of getting a store are much greater.
edit: spelling and a few corrections.
If you want to know about possible sites for future stores the map ITR 81 has posted is a good resource but there are also a few trends that might help. First it is obvious that Apple's decision on store placement have to do where there is the greatest population. If you look at the metropolitan areas with the greatest populations in the US you get these stats:
1 - of the 35 largest metropolitan areas in the US (not counting Puerto Rico) 29 of them have an Apple store or will have before May 2004.
2 - of the 50 largest metropolitan areas 35 have or will have a store by the same time frame.
3 - of the 7 largest metropolitan areas 6 have at least 4 stores with Philadelphia the only one with only two.
Pittsburgh is the largest metro area without an Apple store. The smallest to date will be #57 largest area, Tucson (or if you believe the rumors Syracuse or Spanish Fort - the last a very speculative one.)
It is clear that Apple has made a decision to concentrate the stores in the areas with the greatest population and not to cover the country in terms of each state. Right now 27 of the 50 states have a store.
The "high profile" stores are extremely expensive for Apple (look to Apple's Quarterly statements on their website for information on just how expensive) and the number of sites for such stores (currently New York, LA, Chicago, and soon to be San Francisco in the US and Tokyo and soon to be Osaka in Japan) is very limited according to Ron Johnson (head of Apple's retail strategy.) My guess of the US locations only Washington, Philadelphia, or Boston has much chance of such a store soon. The rumored London (Regent Street) store will be a high profile location as well as any other new foreign locations. What this means is it is likely that there will be only two to three a year tops.
As to the other stores, Apples has place an emphasis on making the stores profitable unlike the effort of Gateway that over expanded and just about drove the company to financial ruin. It has been a consistent approximately 20 stores a year so far, but that will not mean a move to the kind of numbers Gateway has now (about 175, if I remember right).
One way to know about future sites is to look to locations of Mall property owners that Apple has already opened stores with. Apple has made deals with the mall developers Simon, Westfield, and Macerich, so if you have one of these malls near you your odds of getting a store are much greater.
edit: spelling and a few corrections.
