Apple Computer, Inc. has reported that The Apple Store, its new online store, received over $12 million dollars of orders in its first 30 days of operation. The Apple Store opened its e-doors on Nov. 10, 1997.

"The Apple Store is now one of the top e-commerce sites on the Internet," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "We are thrilled by the customer acceptance of both the store and our new build-to-order program."

The Apple Store is one element of Apple's new distribution strategy, which also includes a broad new relationship with CompUSA, one of the nation's largest computer resellers. CompUSA is opening an Apple "store within a store" in every one of their over 140 stores in the US. Each "store within a store" features the complete Apple computer line, a large selection of accessories, and over 200 Macintosh software titles&£45;-all in a single Apple-branded location within the store.

The Apple Store was created using WebObjects, Apple's award winning web development software which has become a market share leader. Apple recently announced WebObjects version 3.5, featuring improved Java support and greater ease of use through its Direct-to-Web technology. WebObjects is transforming the way many companies approach the development of web commerce applications.

http://www.apple.com/store

(c) Reuters