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"&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Best Buy Co. said Wednesday that it has agreed to expand a pilot program aimed at testing sales of Apple's Mac computer line to approximately 200 of its stores by the fall.&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;\r\n\r\n&amp;lt;vc&amp;gt;The largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer confirmed the move during a quarterly conference call in which it said fourth-quarter earnings rose 18.5 percent, helped by a combination of strong sales of big screen TVs, install services, and an extra week in the quarter.\r\n\r\nBest Buy said net income for the quarter ended March 3rd rose to $763 million, or $1.55 per share, up from $644 million, or $1.29, during the previous year. It added that revenues also increased 21 percent to $12.9 billion, with same-store sales rising 5.9 percent.\r\n\r\nThe expansion of the Mac pilot to 200 stores will represent a fourfold increase in exposure for Apple at the electronics retailer, which until now had been testing sales of Apple's PC line at only &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2156\"&amp;gt;about 50 locations&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; nationwide. \r\n\r\nBest Buy initiated the pilot last June at a handful of stores located on the west coast but indicated that it &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1788\"&amp;gt;would rapidly expand&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; the program to more of its 900+ shops  if the concept proved successful. Over 45 additional locations &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2156\"&amp;gt;were later added&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; to the mix in October.\r\n\r\nInvestment bank Morgan Stanley has said that a full expansion of the pilot to all of Best Buy's stores could generate &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1835\"&amp;gt;as much as $400 million&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; in additional Mac sales for Apple each year. \r\n\r\nThe Cupertino-based Mac maker is also running &amp;lt;a href=\"http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2020\"&amp;gt;a similar, albeit smaller, pilot&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; at Circuit City retail outlets located on the east coast."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://appleinsider.com/articles/07/04/04/best_buy_to_expand_apple_mac_pilot_to_200_stores>