NEW YORK
— Apple continues to
pile up TWICE retail awards as the
company takes home the 2010 Best
Vendor Retailer trophy.
Apple has won this award a total of
four times from 2006 through 2010.
The company won the award due to
its ongoing ability to operate unique
destination stores, while creating and
shipping some of the most talkedabout
consumer electronic products in
the world.
Apple was also handed the award
because of its merchandising excellence,
store design, customer service
and retail innovation, which contributed
to Apple’s overall financial
performance for the
12-month period
ending Sept. 30.
The chain’s development
and continued
improvement of its in-store
facilities like the Genius Bar
was a leading contributor toward Apple
being named Best Vendor Retailer.
The maker of the immensely popular
iPhone and iPod product
lines added to its reputation
for creating buzzgenerating
devices
with the introduction
in January of the iPad.
After the iPad’s initial
launch through Apple’s
brick-and-mortar and
online stores, the company
began selling them through other
retailers like Best Buy and, most
recently, Target.
Industry analysts have speculated
Apple could ship as many as 7 million
units in 2010.
However, even before the iPad
began grabbing headlines, Apple was
able to push itself up one notch to
become take third place on TWICE’s
2009 Top 100 Consumer Electronics
Retailers Report.
The list states Apple generated $6.9
billion in sales in 2009. Despite the
fact that this figure was 6.2 percent
lower than what was posted in 2008,
it was enough to keep the chain ahead
of Target. In addition, it did so with only
250 stores nationwide, compared with
Target’s 1,740.
While the iPad may have been
Apple’s star of the year, the company
did not sit back on its laurels regarding
the iPhone and iPod.
The iPhone 4 went on sale in June
with the usual lines of Apple loyalists
dutifully waiting for their Apple Store
to open. With more than 600,000
units pre-ordered, the iPhone 4 launch
greatly outpaced that of the iPhone 3G
S, according to AT&T at the time.
In September, the iPod Shuffle, Nano
and Touch received what Apple CEO
Steve Jobs described as the “biggest
change in the iPod ever.”
The popularity of Apple’s music and
communications products helped the
company maintain its position as a top
U.S. PC vendor. According to Gartner,
Apple boosted shipments by almost
25 percent for the second quarter, the
latest period of statistics are available.
This made Apple the fourth largest PC
vendor in the United States, with 9.8
percent of the market share on 1.7
million units shipped during the second
quarter.
