Apple’s retail store operation reported record financial results for the fourth quarter of 2007, including a record number of Macintosh sales. Revenues from the stores totaled $1.2 billion for the quarter, up from $936 million from the same quarter of 2006, and up from $915 million the previous quarter. The stores tallied $268 million in profit for the quarter, up 46 percent from the previous quarter. CPU sales shot up a huge 43 percent to 473,000 units. Overall, Apple posted revenues of $6.2 billion and CPU unit sales of 2.1 million, both new records. Apple stock closed today just pennies down from its all-time high, at $174.36, then jumped almost $12 in after-hours trading
For the quarter, Apple’s stores hosted 31 million visitors, or 12,500 per store each week. During a conference call CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the stores provided over 300,000 personal training sessions during the quarter, and now have 387,000 members in the ProCare and One to One programs.For the entire fiscal year, the retail store chain posted revenues of $4.12 billion, including $573 million in profit. Stores visitors received over 102 million visitors during fiscal 2007, and CPU sales for the year were 1.25 million, both new records. Oppenheimer said the quarter included the most successful back-to-school sales season ever.
Average per-store revenues were $6.6 million, with 12 new stores opened during the quarter, for an average of 197 stores open.
Oppenheimer said Apple is not pursuing a pilot reseller program with Circuit City, but rather, “We’re focusing on expanding with Best Buy.” He said there are 230 Best Buy stores now selling computers, and expect to expand that to 270 by year’s end.
Oppenheimer also said that 50 percent of Mac users at the company’s retail stores were new-to-Mac, a figure that has not changed over the past three quarters.
