iPhone 4S launch in Beijing. Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images

Apple Stores are always busy places, but they tend to go crazy when a major new product is launched. With the arrival of the iPhone 4S, writes Needham’s Charlie Wolf in his tenth annual report on the state of Apple’s (AAPL) retail empire, they went absolutely nuts.

The numbers for the quarter that ended Dec. 31:

• Revenue per store: a record $17.08 million, $5 million better than Dec. 2010
• Same store sales: up 42.6% year over year
• Sales per square foot: $2,033 for the quarter, or an annualized rate of $8,133 (Tiffany’s: $2,974 per sq. ft.)
• Visitors per store: up 15.3% annualized
• Share of Apple’s worldwide revenue 13.2%
• International sales: 58% of Apple’s worldwide total
• Stores at the end of the quarter: 361
• Square feet per store: 8,400, up from 6,000 ten years ago
• Stores planned for fiscal 2012: 40 total, about 30 overseas
• Stores planned for China: 25 over the next 3 years, up from 5 today

Below: Wolf’s chart of quarterly store revenue over the past 9 years. The spikes, he says, correspond to the “exploding popularity” of the iPod, the introduction of the iPhone, and the launch of the iPad, respectively.

Source: Needham & Co. from company reports

Filed under: Apple 2.0

Source: FOSS Patents

Apple (AAPL) watchers were shocked Friday when the company, in response to a court-ordered injunction, removed the iPhone 4 and 3GS from its online Apple Store in Germany.

The injunction was suspended before the end of the day — and the products restored — but the bizarre incident left analysts and investors wondering what the hell was going on.

FOSS Patents‘ Florian Mueller thinks he’s found the answer in an obscure legal brief filed in late January by Apple in the Southern District of California. The brief reveals — perhaps inadvertently — something that is usually a closely guarded industry secret: the terms of a royalty agreement to license a key piece of patented technology.

Apple needed the technology. Motorola (MOT) owned it. And it was asking, according to the document Mueller discovered, 2.25% of Apple’s iPhone sales up to and including the iPhone 4.

According to Apple’s SEC filings for fiscal years 2007 through 2011, revenue from those iPhone sales totaled $92.64 billion, of which Motorola seemed to be demanding a $2.08 billion cut.

It’s unclear, says Mueller, whether this covered just one patent or all of Motorola’s so-called standards-essential intellectual property but, he writes, “the amount still seems excessive to me.”

Apple apparently agrees, and it has filed a series of discovery motions aimed at finding out how much Motorola charged Nokia, HTC, LG and Ericsson for the same technology.

If Motorola was trying to squeeze more out of Apple than its competitors, it could be in trouble. The patent in question is covered by the so-called FRAND rules. These require that technology that has become part of an industry standard be licensed under terms that are “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.” Samsung is currently being investigated by the EU for just such an alleged FRAND violation.

Filed under: Apple 2.0

By Alex Konrad, reporter

FORTUNE — Super Bowl weekend is here. For some, Sunday is all about the game. For others, the ads take center stage. For the latter, here are three keys to making a killer spot.

1. Story
Some of the ads during the game will stand out precisely for their in-your-face crassness, but the spots that stick out tend to have a meaningful story. While many ads go for a quick laugh, the ones that build a narrative are likely to stick with viewers for a longer time, says Jennifer Escalas, a marketing professor at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Escalas, along with Jesper Nielsen of the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, found in a study published by the Journal of Consumer Psychology that ads with a strong story not only have a better shelf life in our memories, but also have it easier maintaining momentum in later ad campaigns.

Even with the average 30-second spot costing $3.5 million, some companies will pay for extra airtime. But for most, Escalas says the trick is to find the balance between simple and a Tolstoy novel. “If it’s too easy to figure out, you might laugh once but it won’t be funny the second time around,” she explains. “And if it’s too complicated, you tune out. There’s a sweet spot somewhere in the middle.” The trick is to have viewers making small discoveries as they follow along, without feeling lost in the overall plot.

MORE: Super Bowl: The car ads are back

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) might strike the balance with their multimedia polar bear campaign, Escalas predicts, while Volkswagen struck story gold with its ad “The Force” last year and is positioned to match it with “The Dog Strikes Back” this time around. Honda’s (HMC) CR-V campaign with Matthew Broderick as a real-life Ferris Bueller also gets strong storytelling marks from the researcher. GoDaddy, meanwhile, stands out to Escalas as a brand that seems to put little effort into telling a story in its spots.

2. Brand
An effective story is a start, but it’s possible to tell a good yarn without reaping the benefits. Take 2005, when Ameriquest Mortgage ran a memorable spot in which a series of mishaps befalls a man cooking dinner for his partner, leading to her walking in to what appears the impending murder of their cat. The ad was memorable and amusing, but had what Derek Rucker, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, calls a linkage problem. “The ad was extremely funny, but no one could remember what it was for,” Rucker says. “We have some concerns about linkage when you remember the ad, but not the brand or position.”

Rucker leads a yearly Super Bowl Advertising Review with colleague Tim Calkins, in which the professors discuss the night’s ads with their students to measure each one’s overall effectiveness. Rucker notes that the story and tone of ads must be right — where Groupon’s (GRPN) infamous 2011 spot imploded and Century 21 will face a challenge this year as a real estate company — but that the ad’s level of linkage is critical to informing a consumer’s later decisions. One linkage success story Rucker can point to: Google’s (GOOG) “Parisian Love” ad from 2010. The ad, depicting the evolution of a Parisian romance through searches, created an emotional connection while also remaining thoroughly about the brand, Rucker explains.

MORE: 5 ways the Super Bowl ad playbook has changed

Strong linkage can help brands garner recognition even where they come up short in other areas. Dockers’ pantless ad from 2010, for example, does well in making the brand memorable, even if viewers found it bizarre. And for caution, Rucker points to GoDaddy as a company whose ads have linkage but nothing else positive, as the ads offend many people and cater only to a limited demographic using the same tired honey trap.

3. Equity
With a strong story and good brand linkage a firm can make a solid impact with America’s largest TV audience, over 100 million people. The last major thing to watch for is something Rucker calls “Super Bowl equity.” In other words, the brands that appear perennially can build up a positive association in consumers’ minds. Viewers simply expect to see an ad for Budweiser. Its owner Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) is a perennial favorite advertiser for Rucker because it maintains the linkage and story — with its indomitable Clydesdales, for example — while establishing continuity from one year to the next.

Professors Rama Yelkur and Chuck Tomkovick, who study the Super Bowl ads at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, point to such consistency as a critical factor for success. “You get a lot of one-and-dones, especially with the dotcom companies,” Tomkovick says. “You have to hang in there. Anheuser-Busch is always running ads.” Yelkur adds that companies that make the difficult choice to drop out miss out on such consumer expectation. “Continuity absolutely helps a brand,” Yelkur says. “There’s an expectation that people bring these spokespeople back, and they’re recognized as synonymous with the brand.”

MORE: Super Bowl ads are GoDaddy’s domain

Some brand strategies reflect recognition of that benefit. Tomkovick points to Volkswagen’s teaser ad for its 2012 Super Bowl campaign, which maintained the Star Wars theme of its 2011 hit, while the 2012 ad itself also pays homage to its predecessor. The two also point to GoDaddy as a brand that, for all its ads’ criticism, still hang in from year to year and have become associated with the game. Tomkovick says that with one-time ads for companies like Pets.com a decade ago or Groupon last year, audiences can sniff out a brand that does not seem to have staying power.

Filed under: Contributors