Apple’s retail stores helped carry the company to increased revenues and the largest number of Mac sales in history. The stores posted revenues of $915 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2007, short of a record but an increase from both the previous year and quarter. Using newly-announced accounting rules for the retail operation, profit increased to $184 million for the quarter, a new record. Sales of computers at the stores reached a new high, with 330,000 Macs sold in the stores during the quarter, a 53% increase from last year. Overall, the company reported revenues of $5.41 billion, with a profit of $818 million. But analysts were universally surprised that just 270,000 iPhones were sold at Apple and AT&T stores during the first weekend before the quarter ended. Some analysts had speculated that 700,000 iPhones were sold during the quarter. During a conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said Apple will open 12 more stores in the current quarter, ending the fiscal year with 197.
Oppenheimer said that Apple has signed up a total of over 270,000 members for its $99 a year “One to One” personal training service, which translates to over $26 million in revenue.
Oppenheimer called the retail results “outstanding,” and said revenues were up 33 percent compared to the same quarter of 2006. However, compared to the previous quarter, revenues were up just seven percent. Mac sales were up 53 percent from the previous year, and up 20 percent from the previous quarter. The numbers of visitors increased only slightly this quarter, up from 21.5 million in the previous quarter to 21.9 million. He said that represented 9,000 visitors per store per week.
The company said that Best Buy now has special sales areas in 75 of its stores, and will increase that number to 200 by the end of this quarter, and 300 by the end of 2007. During a conference call, Oppenheimer said the company was “very satisfied” with the program, but wouldn’t quantify sales by Best Buy.
Oppenheimer noted that Apple had remodeled 15 stores during the quarter. Some of those changes include floor plan changes, while others are more extensive upgrades of floors, furniture and interior features.
The percentage of new-to-Mac sales was “over 50 percent,” Oppenheimer said, the second quarter he has given the same figure.
Oppenheimer said he didn’t yet have a target figure for new stores during 2008, but would report the number to analysts during next quarter’s conference call.
See the charts and graphs for more financial data.
