Apple has confirmed it plans to open two further AppleStores in the UK, in Manchester and Sheffield.

Apple currently runs shops on London's Regent Street and in Birmingham's Bullring Centre. A third store, in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, is currently being prepared for opening. To that list, we can now add Manchester's Trafford Centre and Sheffield's Meadowhall mall.

It's not clear when the two new stores are projected to open, but Apple has begun recruiting a variety of staff to work at both locations.

Apple operates three stores in Japan and a fourth in Canada. During the company's most recent quarterly results conference, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the company plans to come out of FY2005 with ten stores up and running outside the US. CEO Steve Jobs has said the company intends to open a store in Paris. That, plus the three new UK stores in preparation and those already open, takes the international AppleStore total to ten. Apple's FY2005 comes to a close at the end of September. ®

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