Apple wants to triple its store count in just two years

In a Q&A session held yesterday, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook spoke about the company's intentions to triple the number of retail stores in just two years. Considering the fact that the Cupertino giant currently has 424 retail stores worldwide and 255 in the US, this looked like a very ambitious plan. Unfortunately, it seems this was only a misunderstanding.

Company spokesman Steve Dowling made it clear today that Cook was talking about Greater China, where Apple currently has only 13 retail stores. They now run retail stores in 15 countries, the last ones added to the list being Brazil and Turkey.

Apple's retail sales in the US during 2013 accounted for 12 percent of the company's total, which translates to a sum of $20.2 billion, up from $14.1 billion in 2011. Apple is now the second player in the US specialty electronics retail market with a share of 15 percent, less than half of the 31.3 percent held by Best Buy. 

Former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts joins Apple next week as the head of retail operations and remains to see how will she plan the global expansion of the brand's retail chain. We hope to see more information on the topic should coming out soon, so stay tuned.