Apple retail store sales climb 8%

Apple just continues to ignore the bad economic conditions -- sales at Apple Stores have reportedly gone up 8% during the quarter that ended in March. That's a pretty wholesome figure considering no new Apple computers were offered -- before you protest and ask about the iPad and the new MacBooks, don't forget that that's all happened since April started. So there was more traffic in the stores even before there were new shinies to buy.

This good news for Apple comes from analyst Charlie Wolf, from Needham & Company. He told investors that the March numbers followed 19.8 percent year-over-year growth of same-store sales in December. In March of last year, Mac retail sales were down about 22%.

Same-store year-over-year March Mac revenues were up 31.2 percent, while non-Mac revenues -- including software, iPhones, iPods and accessories increased by 14.5 percent. Starting in September of 2003, Apple has opened 123 U.S. stores. Apple's U.S. market share went from 3% to 9% according to Morgan Stanley. Those are numbers any company would covet.

[Via AppleInsider]