Apple Sees Outlays Of $200 Million For This Fiscal Year
Apple Computer Inc., in a bid to increase its retail presence and boost market share, said it plans about $200 million in capital expenditures in the current fiscal year.</br></br>According to the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple's capital expenditure for fiscal 2002 will go toward replacing existing capital assets, improving its corporate infrastructure and developing more Apple-branded retail stores.</br></br>Apple, which launched 27 of its own retail stores across the country this year, devoted about $92 million to the initiative during its fiscal 2001 ended Sept. 30, out of total captial spending of $232 million, according to the filing. More Apple stores are being planned for fiscal 2002, the filing states, but didn't specify how many.</br></br>Apple's total capital-expenditure plans, while down from a year earlier, underline its effort to continue reaching out to customers through company-owned stores. The computer maker, which has world-wide market share of about 5%, has long maintained that customers need to feel and touch its Macintosh systems in order to fully appreciate the products.</br></br>Since Apple opened its first stores in May 2001, the company has followed a model of locating stores in high-traffic locations such as urban shopping districts and malls. In addition to selling its own computers, Apple's stores also carry a variety of third-party software and devices such as video cameras and hand-held computers. The company originally anticipated that its stores would break even by early next year, but modified those expectations after the Sept. 11 attacks. Apple now expects the stores to generate a small loss for fiscal 2002, the filing states.