“In 2012 Apple opened 41 stores. The total is the second highest yearly opening rate since the stores first began operating,” Horace Dediu reports for Asymco. “The highest total was in 2008 when 47 stores opened.”
“Although it is a healthy total, the surprising story about retail is that stores are not being opened as quickly as Apple’s sales and reach are growing,” Dediu reports. “The store opening rate has been around 40/yr. during the last five years, up from 30/yr. during first seven but a 33% growth rate it’s still a frustratingly slow rate of growth.”
Dediu reports, “Consider that during 2007 when Apple opened 34 stores, Apple’s net sales were $28 billion and that in 2012 when it opened 41 stores sales were about $164 billion.”
Read more, and see the usual excellent graphs, in the full article here.
Big fat blue question mark on all the screenshots in the article on my mini
My mini showed everything. You know Horace, he all about graphs.
Looking at it from Linux/Firefox – the images look to be PNGs.
Should work. Do not know why they would not.
Pulled it up on my iPad 4, works fine.
Other brick and mortar retail places are closing down, and Apple’s 33% growth rate is frustratingly slow.
But hey, even if its FUD its all good cause he has excellent graphs!
It’s best to move cautiously than haphazardly.
Spoken like a true conservative. Sometimes you have to try something and risk it to change the world. The pace of change is increasing and you can fight it, ignore it or move with it. Apple is an audacious company and moves forward by not being afraid to make mistakes. Fortunately for us, they catch those mistakes in house mostly.
All I’m saying is that a prudent approach to retail expansion is a wise thing in our current world economy. There have been many retailers in recent history to expand too quickly only to have to close a significant portion of their storefronts (Starbucks is a good example). It’s better to have a few hundred exciting, crowded stores than to have a thousand lifeless, empty buildings. I’m saying steady wins the race.
Yes, very conservative. Never try anything to find the limits or go out on the bleeding edge. Slow and steady takes forever.
Well, if I was investing I would put my money with SC and Apple and not 3I3c7ro.
Apple has repeatedly demonstrated the slow and steady approach is best. Apple set aside the iPad for years before introducing it in 2010. iPods, same thing. they were not the first mp3 players. The app store came out AFTERWARDS. And Apple TV ain’t here.
Tripping while running fast does not change the world.
It looks logarithmic when you put it on a chart. It will look like the next leg up of Apple’s stock price later this year.
Know one tell the analysts who are also known as our village idiots. They are still using a year ago information to scare off investors. Ignoring the reality of today of course.
There are other reasons for growth rate of the stores. Like getting permits, city ordinances, history preservation and so on. Architecture of the stores and key location for the best possible growth. In other words you just don’t slap on an Apple sign open for business. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of time waiting for permits, city meetings, approvals and so on, not to mention getting good contractors in to do the work on time and on budget. This is just a STUPID negative piece that doesn’t account for so much more then just slapping an Apple sign and opening up for business.
Regular folks have no idea Mall owners/operators are doing everything they can to “encourage” Apple to open a store in one of their properties.
BTW, did MSFT once said that they are going to open xxx number of stores in a year? Can someone in the know shed some light on how well MSFT’s existing store are performing? 🙂
my 2 cents…
I can’t read this site until those Power Company ads are gone. Nice quality control MDN.
Horace Dediu’s belief that the number of Apple Stores should somehow be proportional to net sales is ridiculous. First of all, existing stores can sell more. Second, existing stores can be expanded in size to accommodate larger numbers of customers. Third, Apple products are also sold at other retail locations across the world.
Apple’s stores are highly successful, and Apple continues to open dozens of new stores each year. That is a success story, not a problem. Why are people like Horace Dediu actively seeking to fabricate “issues.”
Right on King Mel! Internet sales are expanding quite rapidly retail doesn’t have to keep pace. .
One of the best reasons not to race ahead opening stores is that the moment a company reaches the level of saturation Wall Street will clobber them for slowing down.
Wall Street does not need a legitimate or logical reason to clobber Apple. They can turn anything Apple does into a negative. I have not seen one thing Apple has done over the last year that proved a positive for the company by Wall Street’s standards. Apple is always seen to come up just short on everything enough to drive the share price down.
A casual outsider would never believe that Apple is one of the most profitable companies on the planet. Wall Street makes it look like Google and Amazon are the rulers of tech and profits and neither of those companies are even close to Apple. Now with Samsung jumping into the fray, Apple will be made to look even weaker. However, as long as Apple continues to sell an increasing number of products each quarter to consumers, it really doesn’t matter what Wall Street or the news media says.
Apple should continue to build new stores and continue to spread the word and give customers quality help and training. It’s very important to build customer relations whether Wall Street understands it or not. That’s one of the basics of running a successful business. I don’t know who does customer support and training for Samsung customers but I bet it isn’t nearly as good as what Apple offers.
It’s like a new life(house) for apple products.
If anyone who understands the meaning of STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH
Are the only ones who’ll make up to Success!
I have the legacy which I’ll continue in apple very soon.
I am back Jenna .