When it comes to Apple and a global vision they originally were a hardware company based out of California. They used to have a large facility there they called the Elk Grove plant, which manufactured circuit boards and desktop computers.
The plant operated seven days a week and employed more than 1,500 people. The more popular and bigger Apple grew though they eventually started job outsourcing to cut and reduce there manufacturing cost. So rather than opening new plants in other U.S. cities, and expand it's existing operations, Apple moved it's production offshore, largely to China where the majority of there Foxconn facilities are located. They also have facilities in Brazil and Ireland.
As of July 2013, Apple has 415 retail stores in 13 countries (253 US, 37 UK, 29 Canada, 20 Australia, 16 France, 14 Italy, 12 Germany, 10 Spain, 8 China, 7 Japan, 3 Switzerland, 3 Hong Kong (China), 2 Sweden, 1 Netherlands), and an online store available in 38 countries worldwide. Apple is also set to open up to 35 new retail stores by the end of 2013.
When it comes to the marketing aspect on a global vision Apple originally opened up there first retail store on the United Stated on May 19, 2001. One in Virginia and the other in California. At first Apple was entirely focused on spreading their retail stores throughout the US. Eventually as they seen there stores becoming more and more successful they started to look into opening up stores internationally. So after about 70 stores in the US, the first international Apple Store was opened in Tokyo, Japan on the 30th of November, 2003. Japan was a main early focus for going international which is why they quickly got 5 stores by the end of 2005. Soon after though Apple shifted it's focus to Europe, specifically the UK. By 2009 more stores were being opened internationally than in the US. By the end of the 2012 fiscal year, 83% of new stores were located in international countries.
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