At today's big Apple event in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple has sold 700 million iPhones to date, a staggering figure that's perhaps better visualized through the sheer reach of the company's brick-and-mortar stores. Today, Apple operates 453 stores in 16 countries, 188 of which are outside of the U.S. A quick sample of these locations reveal that the brand's trademark (literally) glassy, minimalist store design finds a way to fit in—or otherwise impose itself—on very different "streetscapes." In many cases, the Apple store is just a sleek shop in the mall, sandwiched between a Brookstone and Champs Sports. But in others, it's outdoors, surrounded by palm trees; a beacon-like freestanding monument; or as seen in Hong Kong, an expansive building hovering over a multilane road. As Apple gets ready to launch its much-buzzed-about Apple Watch (which will mandate new "V.I.P." sections in its retail locations), cruise through 50 of its most intriguing stores the world.

These Apple outposts, culled from this running database of all Apple stores, are presented in order of when they were built, from the more recent to the very first one that opened in McLean, Virginia in May 2001.











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