Launch of iPad in early 2010 seen to coincide with quantum leap in visits to Apple stores
The Quantum Leap in Retail — In fiscal 2013 there were 395 million visits to Apple retail stores. In 2012 there were 372 million. — The difference is approximately the population of Australia.
Context & Ripple Effects
Asymco's traffic numbers land on top of a three-year arc the corpus has tracked closely: the iPad's arrival was predicted before its June-quarter debut in 2010, its first holiday season became a measuring stick by December of that year, and by mid-2012 Strategy Analytics had Apple holding over two-thirds of a 24.9-million-unit quarterly tablet market. What the store-visit data adds is the physical side of that story.
The mechanism was built deliberately: Store 2.0 turned every table into an interactive iPad display in May 2011, and Apple's international retail push documented in February 2013 extended the format abroad. Against that backdrop, fiscal 2013's 395 million visits versus 372 million the year before reads less as organic drift and more as the compounding return on a fleet of stores purpose-built to demo touch devices. The story traveled widely — pickups ranged from Quartz and Business Insider to MacRumors and BGR — suggesting the retail-traffic angle resonated beyond the usual Apple beat.
First-order effects
- Apple enters each product cycle with roughly the population of Australia walking through its doors annually, meaning iPad and iPhone launches get a built-in hands-on audience that no advertising buy can replicate.
Second-order effects
- Rivals shipping competing tablets are forced to compete for shelf space and demo time inside carrier and third-party retail, where they do not control the presentation the way Apple does in its own stores.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, retail real estate becomes a structural moat in consumer hardware: the company that owns its storefronts sets the demo experience for its category, and competitors must either build matching fleets or cede the try-before-you-buy moment.
The trend: Consumer electronics retail is consolidating around owned flagship stores as the primary demonstration channel for post-PC devices, with Apple's visit volume as the leading indicator of the shift.