CNBC ran a full report on Appleis retail store yesterday evening. Jane Wells, a reporter that often covers Apple for CNBC, said that Apple sent out invitations to mainstream journalists and showed the invitations on screen. Rumors of the new retail stores have been circulating for years, but was confirmed yesterday when Apple officially acknowledged the new stores to a Wall Street Journal reporter. This happened shortly after Apple sent out the invitations.
As has already been reported, the invitations have the Apple logo on the front in the form of a bar code, and the announcement of the companyis first store which opens in McLean, Va. on May 19th. Ms. Wells also reports that the store will "most likely" be modeled after the company store at Appleis Cupertino headquarters. Other locations that have been reported to be future Apple retail store sites were shown as well.
Brett Miller, an analyst for A.G. Edwards, said that Apple is going to be approaching their retail locations as more of a consumer electronics store, and that this will help them succeed where Gatewayis own stores have had some difficulties. "The difference that you have here, is that Apple is laser focused on this strategy," said Mr. Miller. "Itis not going to be all things to all people, but they have a market that they want to approach, and they are going to approach it from more of a consumer electronics marketing stand point. What Gateway did was try to be a technology company and focused on putting technology in a traditional beige box."
CNBC also added that Apple has been hiring executives from other successful retailers. Lastly, Ms. Wells said that Brett Miller said the store would be more like a Sharper Image than a traditional computer store.
Apple has not been bumped by the news and is currently trading at 24.24, down 0.72 (-2.88%), as of this writing.