Apple going on a store-opening spree, opening one every 50 hours for next two months

9to5 Staff | Jul 19 2011 - 7:12 am PT

(Penrith Store – Image Flicker via Macrumors)

Current (via TNW) received some fun Apple Store stats for us this morning on the occasion of the Apple Store Opening in Penrith Sydney, Australia.

“Apple Retail has been in business for 10 years. During this period, we have had over 1 billion visitors through our doors, many of whom are new to the Mac, as the Apple Store is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple,”

We had over 1 million customers sign-up for our Personal Setup offering last quarter alone.

The country’s first Apple-operated retail outlet opened doors for business 2008 in Sydney. As you know, Apple recently celebrated ten years in retail business. Their retail chief Ron Johnson, credited with turning a risky gamble into a highly profitable business, recently left Apple for JC Penney, where he is due to assume the CEO role February 1 next year. Retail stores are a crucial part in Apple’s success. “Without these stores I don’t think we would have been as successful either”, Steve Jobs remarked at the iPad 2 unveiling in February.

The milestone arrives as Apple’s retail staff is gearing up for the OS X Lion launch. Sources say the company is holding employee overnights today in anticipation of the Lion launch tomorrow. In addition, AppleCare reps have received their Lion training and upgraded their workstations to Lion. Leaked training material obtained by 9to5Mac this morning reveals that Lion will be able to reinstall itself over the Internet directly from the all-new recovery partition, without even needing to boot the operating system and launch the Mac App Store.

Apple currently has 330 open stores, Fiscal 2011 ends September 25th, in just over 2 months…

“Our retail offering continues to growth, with Penrith the 11th store in Australia, since we opened Apple Store Sydney just three years ago. Globally we are planning to have 363 stores in fiscal 2011.”

Speaking of the Penrith Apple Store, there is a special media event for the opening July 23rd at 8am (see below). The store will open to the public at 9am.

Saturday? 8am? Journalists? Hehe.

Media Preview

What:
A preview of the new Apple® Retail Store Penrith for accredited media

When:
Saturday, 23 July, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. AEST

Where:
Apple Store® Penrith
Shop 288-291, Westfield Penrith
569-595 High Street
Penrith, NSW 2750

Accredited journalists may confirm their attendance by calling

Grand Opening

The Apple Store Penrith will open to the public on Saturday, 23 July, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. AEST.

The Apple Store is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple including iPad® 2, featuring an entirely new design that is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad, and iPhone® 4, the most innovative phone in the world.

Service is the hallmark of every Apple Store, with dedicated space for technical support, personal training and free workshops. Customers can get free support and advice at the Genius Bar® plus amazing Personal Setup for iPad, iPhone, iPod® and Mac®, so every customer is up and running before they leave the store.

Additional information about Apple’s retail stores is available at www.apple.com/au/retail.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.