Apple plans to open a new retail store in Santa Rosa. California, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The 1,500-square-foot store, on Santa Rosa Plaza’s ground floor, is targeted to open in September, mall marketing director Julie Kelly told the newspaper. The article also quotes Lorene Romero of Windsor, president of the 500-member North Coast Mac Users Group and Tim Bajarin, a Silicon Valley analyst with Creative Strategies, as saying that the move signals a departure from Apple’s 78 existing retail branches, which are located primarily in densely populated metropolitan hubs in 27 states and Japan. “It would represent a foray into a much smaller market” than San Jose’s Valley Fair mall and other high-traffic Bay Area shopping centers, Bajarin said. “It suggests that Apple believes that’s a strong potential market for Mac products.”