Apple Stores

Putting lipstick on Microsoft's pigs

At the end of a long report on the Apple Stores -- and the corner he believes they have turned -- Needham analyst Charles Wolf turned his attention this week to Microsoft (MSFT) and its plans to launch a fleet of company-branded stores of its own, complete with wall-sized digital screens, spaces for free public events and "Guru" bars to deal with customers' software complaints.

Let's hope Steve Ballmer isn't on MORE

Apple: Another opening, another show

Apple's (AAPL) 258 retail stores may be drawing fewer visitors and bringing in less revenue than they did before the economic downturn (see stats below the fold), but they can still make a splash.

Witness the grand opening video -- shot by No. 2 in line -- of the company's 21st U.K. Apple Store in Brighton on Saturday, complete with the usual long snaking queue, 1,000 free T-shirts and over-the-top high-fiving MORE

Demand for new MacBooks outstrips supplies

The new MacBooks are hot -- and we're not talking about the lap-scorching temperature of their aluminum unibodies.

Apple's (AAPL) online store is currently showing a 7- to 10-day delay in shipping two models of the MacBook Pro -- the high-end ($1,500) 13-inch and the entry-level ($1,700) 15-inch.

According to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, who tracks product lead times, Apple has never had a 7-10-day delay in the 13-inch MacBook -- the MORE

Where have all the white iPhones gone?

It's the reverse of Henry Ford's line about the Model T.  Today you can buy any iPhone you want, as long as it's not white.

Apple (AAPL) has been having trouble keeping the entry-level white iPhone in stock since the new 3GS went on sale two and a half weeks ago. But as of Tuesday morning, it has all but disappeared.

The 16 GB model -- apparently the most popular -- is MORE

Apple runs short of iPhones

The iPhone availability widget is back -- new and improved -- and it's showing spot shortages of selected iPhones at Apple (AAPL) stores across the United States.

The availability tool, which appears on Apple's website in times of scarcity, was last seen in the summer of 2008, when demand for the iPhone 3G was heavy and supplies short.

When it reappeared on Friday, only 29 of Apple's 257 stores were displaying shortages of MORE

Apple Stores: The big chill

Is there an Apple Store near you? Count yourself lucky, because the days of Apple's (AAPL) aggressive expansion into the branded retail space are over -- at least for now.

After opening more than 250 company-owned stores in eight years -- an average of nearly 8 per quarter and a total of 46 in 2008 alone -- Apple in the last quarter opened just one.

The building slowdown is one of several MORE

Apple's first D.C. store: Design by committee

It took five tries -- and four redesigns --  but Apple (AAPL) last week finally won approval to build a retail outlet in Washington D.C., its first in the nation's capital.

The final rendering, shown at right, was designed to echo the architectural features of the city's historic Georgetown neighborhood. It was enthusiastically embraced by the same architectural preservation board that had soundly rejected Apple's previous designs.

"This is beautifully executed," Stephen MORE

An Apple Store for Brooklyn?

New Yorkers know better, especially these days, than to expect any sympathy from the rest of the country -- even though the city, with three Apple Stores for a population of more than 8 million, is conspicuously underserved by the company's retail outlets. (San Francisco's three stores, by contrast, serve a population of fewer than 800,000.)

But what about Brooklyn? The most populous of the five boroughs (pop. 2.5 million) would MORE

Apple has NOT banned Facebook

How do these rumors get started? Or, more to the point, how do they get perpetuated?

Late Thursday, a site called tinycomb ("Hand-Picked Tech News") reported that Facebook had been banned "for life" from every Apple (AAPL) store in the United States -- some 207 retail outlets in all, by my count.

This must have been one of those facts that was too good to check, because I'm pretty sure none of MORE

Wal-Mart to sell iPhone starting Sunday

Wal-Mart confirmed Friday what everyone who follows Apple already knew: that it will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 Wal-Mart stores starting Sunday Dec. 28 -- three days after Christmas.

Wal-Mart will sell the red-hot mobile device for $197 for the 8GB model and $297 for the 16GB model, or $2 off their current prices. There had been rumors that Wal-Mart would sell a $99 iPhone. (See Anatomy of a MORE