Apple Inc (AAPL)

[tomm]

Best Buy tests Mac sales

Best Buy is selling Apple computers in seven stores to see whether it should carry Macs in all 754 of its outlets.

Best Buy -- the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer -- has offered Macs before, but dropped them in 1998 because of slow sales. Apple subsequently pulled out of most retailers and opened its own stores. Apple needs some help in its effort to raise its market share above 5 percent. But Best Buy faces an uphill battle, said analyst Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. Non-Apple stores "typically have done a terrible job at selling the Mac," he said. (AP in The Philadelphia Inquirer, free registration required)