Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has about 250 retail stores. It's not surprising that their sales would be off. The recession in retail revenues has spread almost everywhere.

But, the trouble at Apple stores may be deeper than many investors would expect. According to Barron's, "Apple's same-store revenues, a key retail metric comparing sales of stores open for at least a year, slid 17.4% in the December quarter from a year earlier, reports Needham hardware analyst Charlie Wolf." Visitor traffic is fairly flat, so a lot of people are just hanging around checking out the Macs and iPods.

I wrote last week that I have moved my price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for the umpteenth time and it now is set for $300 within 12 months. The company has so much momentum in all of its products, and margins are holding up and in fact could be expanding.

The December quarter will be announced in late January, and expectations are set for $9.32 billion in revenues and earnings per share of $1.52. I believe Apple will exceed these expectations -- again -- and of course forward numbers will be raised once again.

Besides the iPod, the iPhone, and the new Mac with the new Leopard operating system, the other variable in the story is difficult to quantify. That variable is Apple's retail stores and the feeling a consumer gets while visiting one. I went to one over the weekend and was in the store for over an hour, just observing the customers and the sales staff. Man, it was unreal.

Yes, the malls were busy this weekend before New Year's Day, but the Apple store was busier than most of its neighboring stores. The one I visited in the Ridgedale Mall in Minnetonka, Minnesota. is a small store in comparison to the flagship Minneapolis Great Mall of America store, yet it was comfortable and there was a buzz. The amazing part of the Apple stores is nothing is "on sale." No need for sales, the stuff just sells like hotcakes.

I have been writing about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for the past ten months for AOL's BloggingStocks and have been a bull in every article. The shares have been a home run for investors in this difficult and challenging year. Apple is fast becoming the business school case study right before our very eyes as this company is executing flawlessly. Let's examine what's going on here in the calender fourth quarter -- Apple's fiscal first quarter of fiscal year 2008.

The stock has ranged these past 12 months from a low of $76 to a high of $192. Currently Apple is at $171 and this may be your last chance to buy it below $175. Apple finished its fiscal year 2007 with incredible numbers, margins, and more importantly, momentum, entering the new fiscal year. The new and improved Mac has taken market share and will continue to. The new operating system, Leopard, is enjoying rave reviews and quite frankly has the competition nervous. It should. The Mac sold 2.16 million units in the quarter ending in September, and the December quarter will only see upside to that number.

The revolutionary iPhone is exactly that: revolutionary. It is now the phone of choice from teenagers to the elderly. My two teenage children are only asking for one thing this Christmas -- the iPhone. With the price point down to $399, a whole new generation of buyers has emerged. Also, iPhone is debuting in Europe and Asia, where demand is already high. Apple will recognize iPhone revenues over a 24 month period as it matches the contract length of AT&T (NYSE: T), the service provider. Of course Apple will be reaping a portion of AT&T's monthly iPhone subscription revenue.

During the market disruptions of the past couple of months, we saw Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) fall from a high of $148 to a low of $118 ( man, what an opportunity that was!!). The stock is now back up to $141 and this may be your last chance to buy it here under $150. Why? A lot of catalysts are on the near term horizon.

Apple finishes its fiscal year in 11 days. The September 30 quarter and year-end will wrap up an exceptional year for Apple, yet many would argue that the best is yet to come. I expect the year finishing in 11 days to have final revenue numbers of $24 billion with earnings per share coming in at $3.75. iPhone revenues will be somewhat relevant, but that piece of the Apple story is JUST BEGINNING. As Apple exits fiscal year 2007, the more relevant story is still the overwhelming success of the iPod with the corresponding iTunes store, and of course, the newly revamped Mac computer. Mac is gaining market share in a fairly fluid market.

The iPhone production is ramping up. For the year (calendar year), Apple had planned to produce 3.6 million iPhone units. That number is now at 4.8 million units in planned production. European nations will be rolled out for iPhone availability beginning in the calendar fourth quarter with the UK and Germany getting ready for the onslaught.

Here some interesting tech news from the World Wide Web today:

• Wikia, the San Mateo start-up founded by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, is working on a search engine that will use the same strategy as Wikipedia's user-reliant encyclopedia. Wikia, which already has Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as an investor, is expected to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2007. (VentureBeat.com)


• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) could vault ahead of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) in 2007 to become the world's most visited Web site. Microsoft is No. 1 worldwide -- largely because of downloads of updates to its ubiquitous software -- and Yahoo! is the most visited Internet property in the U.S. But Google is growing fast and the recent acquisition of YouTube could speed up its rise. (USA Today)


• The market share of visits to Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Apple Store (store.apple.com) showed an increase of 110% when comparing Christmas Day 2006 to 2005. The Apple Store was the fourth most visited website in the Hitwise Retail Index on Christmas Day 2006. (GigaOm.com)

The Apple Store, by all measures, has become a huge success. So much so, that Cingular, Dell, and others are trying their hand at the physical retail thing. A couple days before Christmas I drove by the below ground Apple Store next to FAO Schwarz on New York's Fifth Avenue. While not indigenous to New York City, flocks of tourists nonetheless surrounded the distinctly-designed store.

This year, according to one research report, Apple's stores raked in an average of $4032 per square foot annually, while retail chain Best Buy made $930 and luxury retailer Tiffany & Co. produced $2,666 during the same period. Analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group notes, "if you're measuring a store in terms of production per store, that's pretty impressive."

When the stores first opened, I admit that I was skeptical. Now, all agree that they are a strategically sound addition to the Apple empire (and brand). The Apple store on Fifth Avenue has been described as a marvel of modern design. Some claim that is serves as the technological epi-center for NYC. So much for Silicon Alley.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in some cases, it is just downright embarrassing. Case in point, Dell's attempt to imitate the success of the Apple Store with a Dell Store of their very own. Dell's only store, in Texas, is an odd creature. Despite claims that the store is not going to supplement or change Dell's direct sales strategy, it does exist. Why? Will there be more Dell stores? Does Dell even know what it is doing here?

Before the Apple store a number of computer manufacturers were trying this model and failing. This was one of the reasons everyone predicted Apple Retail would also fail. But it seems style and shopping experience play into people's decisions to show up, and Gateway failed.

Has Dell learned a lesson. Well, the guy at IFO Applestore went and took a look and he doesn't think so, he thinks Dell is really confused. We won't have to worry about Dell challenging the Apple store approach anytime soon, will we?

[thanks to Chris Aloi for the photo]

Apple retail stores are popping up all over the U.S. -- as well as the U.K., Canada, and Japan. The stores function as a location for educating customers about the best the company has to offer, as well as providing a clean and well lit space to promote Apple products. The effect of an Apple store opening anywhere new is always to increase Apple awareness. It is pretty much a proven strategy by Apple.

Now it is rumored that Apple might be expanding its retail presence into Australia. A location in trendy downtown Sydney is being speculated about by ardent Apple followers. Certainly an Apple store in Australia's most famous city would be a smart move. The more marketshare Apple can snag the better. Many of these stores have a demographic of 50% 'new to mac' sales, so the more stores, the more new customers Apple gets. And that's a good thing.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

Apple closed today at $57.00, down $2.24, quite a slide at some 3.78% of the stock price. Apple's stock is famously volatile, for all that people become famously attached to the brand or against it, and this is another example.

Part of the slide is no doubt due to some negative press Apple received this weekend. Protests at Apple stores all over the weekend made their way into the news as opposition to Digital Rights Management made its voice heard. Posters of shadows of people handcuffed by their ipod bud wires were passed out, and people dressed in hazmat suits stood outside stores. At the least it's a sign of how tightly linked Apple is to media and the entertainment companies and of how successful the iPod is. Who would have imagined protests going on outside Apple about its digital music player several years ago?

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

How much do Apple enthusiasts love the new Apple store in Manhattan? A heck of a lot, evidently. Steve Jobs went out on quite a limb by designing an I.M. Pei-inspired cube around the subterranean store's entrance at the base of the GM building on 5th Avenue and 59th Street. Apple fans are already lining up, waiting for the

Today the cube came into view and press was invited to tour the fabu new location. Forbes says, "Apple appears to have met the challenge of creating a flagship store worthy of the distinction." Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson (who uploaded this photo to his flickr account) says, "The design reminds me of an x-ray of the original NeXT Cube... part of the cubist design leitmotif." Scott McNulty from TUAW is "obsessed." Just check out the many fan photos elsewhere on flickr for an indication of the cult of the cube.

The store opens tomorrow night at 6 p.m. and could be the very symbol of a company for whom the retail strategy actually works. After what I've read today, I have to conclude: this is one of the few pieces of Manhattan real estate that were really worth the money.

[Photo John Brockman]

Apple was plugging along today, basking in the glow of its new (and black) MacBook, and Steve Jobs was probably patting himself on his back after yesterday's lovely write-up in the Wall Street Journal. I'm so smart, he was probably thinking, those naysayers just wish they'd invested in Apple way back when!

And then. Everybody started selling. Before MacBook could rack up its nth sale (rumored to be good even by Apple's projections), before Jobs could reach around for that acrobatic back pat, the market had hammered APPL to the tune of $2.08 -- a whopping 3.19%. The stock ended the day at $63.18.

Despite the sell-off, reviewers can't say enough good about the MacBook; MacWorld said it was faster than the fastest iBook G4 in almost all of its tests. And Forbes went raving on about the new Manhattan Apple store (in a historically dank and failure-ridden space, however). So why the big sell-off? Could it be a side-effect of bad news at rival Dell? If you sold today, what were you thinking?

The Wall Street Journal today covers Steve Job's retail strategy for Apple, that has succeeded beyond Wall Street's wildest dreams -- and, in fact, was roundly dismissed as a bad idea when Jobs first came up with it five years ago. Apple believed its computers weren't being merchandised appropriately, especially when compared to PCs running the ubiquitous Windows operating system. Why not open Apple retail stores? Jobs thought.

Of course, there are lots of reasons why not, starting with cost and continuing on through the headache of managing retail employees and ending with pissing off your retailers. Although the first few concerns seem to be far outweighed with the fantastic success of the Apple stores ($2.35 billion in revenue for fiscal 2005, 17% of Apple's total sales), the last continues to be an issue. Several retailers have sued the computer company, claiming that Apple gives its own stores preference for hot new products.

Even more than sales, Apple stores seem to be a flashpoint for the company's avid (or would "avid" be a vast understatement?) customers and feature unique and iconic only-in-Apple designs. With Friday's upcoming unveiling of Apple's second Manhattan store under the GM building, the company will be stepping into 24-hour retail and certainly will become even more of a mecca for Apple enthusiasts everywhere. Doubting Thomases should only look to the company's stock price (up $0.25 on a bad day for the market) to see whether the market believes Jobs can pull off yet another unusual success.

[Photo of Manhattan Apple store Patricio00]