Apple: 40-50 new stores coming in 2010

Apple has said that it plans to open between 40 and 50 new stores in 2010, with more than half those located outside the United States in countries including Canada, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and China. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is also planning to focus on building more “significant,” or flagship, stores in major cities, as they are the company’s top retail revenue generators. “Other retailers call them flagship stores. We don’t use that word,” Apple senior vice president of Retail Ron Johnson said when explaining the “significant store” terminology. Highlighting Apple’s new Upper West Side store in NYC, set to open Saturday morning, the report adds that more significant stores are planned for spring or early summer openings in London, Paris, and Shanghai. Johnson also said that new stores will be larger than the majority of existing stores, to accomodate more product displays and larger Genius Bars. “Our stores are too small,” he explained. “Our biggest challenge at the Genius Bar — we cannot build them big enough.”