is there supposed to be a political correlation here?
Just an economic one. Apple Stores are generally only found in high-rent areas and in "nicer" malls. As I've told a friend, if you're walking past an iPad billboard in Los Angeles, you're in a real upscale neighborhood.
There is also a correlation with how much of the population lives in a big city. In a lot of the middle of the country there are a lot of people living in small to medium size towns which cannot support an Apple store. Whereas in the west, a lot of the population is congregated in cities. Nevada is the best example of this. Even though it's a fairly downscale state, it is also a very urban state with almost everyone living in the two cities. Even in California, you have cities like Modesto, Fresno and Bakersfield which are big enough to support an Apple store even though they aren't that well off.
