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emcviper

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2007
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Microsoft has been working to revive the image of its ubiquitous Windows operating system, starting with a $300 million advertising campaign that began last fall. Vista, the most recent version of the software, was widely criticized for being slow, requiring new and pricer hardware, and not working with devices like printers and scanners. Vista has also been the subject of a series of snarky television ads from Apple Inc.

At the same time it launched upbeat new TV ads last fall, some of which struck right back at Apple, Microsoft posted 144 of its own employees in electronics chain stores around the world to talk with shoppers about Windows.

The "Gurus" seemed to be Microsoft's answer to Apple's in-store "Genius Bar." With its newly announced retail store intentions, the Redmond-based software maker is taking yet another page from Apple's play book. Apple credits its stores, concentrated mostly in the U.S., for helping boost its profile and draw new customers.

Microst to open own retail stores
 
stupid apple fan boys thinking apple comes up with everything first and everyone copies them and then they wonder why apple fans get no respect.
 
Weren't they rumors until just recently (rather than news)?
There was mention and concept art of a store for the Japanese market to expand the Xbox 360 base. Later you got Microsoft employees at game shops.

Microsoft getting around to a retail deployment isn't anything new.
 
lol omg because apple was teh first to have retail stores! zomg! WTF!
 
Big Deal, let the mindless ppl copy it. Apple has Macs, iPhone, iPods, Softwares, Speakers and much more in the Apple Store.

And M$ will just have Microsoft products in the store. So the store will only have Windows, Visual Studio, and other crap-ware....
Its soo going to be a flop.

Why not just purchase it online??
 
Apple is not the first one to have retail stores, nor the one that made retail stores popular. I don't see how this is copying at all. That's like saying Apple copied Sony in having retail stores.

Big Deal, let the mindless ppl copy it. Apple has Macs, iPhone, iPods, Softwares, Speakers and much more in the Apple Store.

And M$ will just have Microsoft products in the store. So the store will only have Windows, Visual Studio, and other crap-ware....
Its soo going to be a flop.

Why not just purchase it online??

Why not just purchase Apple products online? Some people just like to shop in stores and try out what they're going to buy. Some people don't like using credit cards online or don't have a credit card. There are many reasons why someone who choose a physical retail store than an online one. Plus, Microsoft have a lot more than just "crap-ware". They're probably going to put in XBox + accessories, Zunes + accessories, MS Mice and Keyboards, and maybe some games along with their software products. So really the only thing that the Apple store have that they don't have is computers. But they have more products in other areas.
 
It will be fun to go to a MS store, even if it is just to see how they market their OS. Especially as Apple has legendary advertising and a really nice store layout, I wonder how MS will manage to compete with them?
 
Microsoft to Open Stores

Let the emulating continue!! Microsoft plans to open retail stores of their own with the help of a Wal-Mart exec. Here's the thing. Apple has a lot of hardware to fill their tables. What will Microsoft have? Zunes, mice and software boxes?

Will they have a Genius Bar? Will the store look bright and sterile? Will anyone care?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123448293075579777.html
 
What will they sell in there? (Obviously Microsoft products but it's not as if demoing Windows 7 on a generic machine has anything particularly Microsoft-ish about it?) Mice? Random MS software? Doesn't sound too inspirational to me. The apple store works because it gives users the chance to use Apple products that are exciting and fun. Can you imagine going into a store to demo Windows Vista/XP/Windows 7/w.e.
 
Apple is not the first one to have retail stores, nor the one that made retail stores popular. ...
Gateway preceded Apple. If memory serves, so did Dell. Both cratered. If we go back in history, Radio Shack had computer stores. Radio Shack no longer manufacturers computers. Call it a leap in logic, but somehow I don't think that Microsoft intends to emulate Gateway, Dell, or Tandy. It is difficult for the Microsoft fanboys to accept, but the Redmond Monopoly is copying Apple.

For Apple, its brick and mortar stores dramatically added value to the company. Steve Jobs said that the Apple Stores did not have to be profitable to benefit the company. However, they are successful by any measure. Microsoft's situation is dramatically different. You can buy Microsoft products everywhere--Best Buy, Sears, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Al's Computer Exchange. In order to Microsoft stores to have an impact on the market, they would have to be as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Everybody knows Microsoft products. There is no way that Microsoft retail stores can change the perception of the company or its products in the market.

Another losing idea from a company that has run out of winning ideas.
 
This won't work because M$ is a software company... software isn't something you can touch and feel and meet in person.

Apple stores work because Apple actually has a physical product - you can go up to a computer and use it...

M$ will either have to partner with Dell :)eek:), Sony :)eek:x2) or some other generic-looking, homogenized computer, or build their own - which won't be for resale and therefore waste half the time and energy of the salesman who have to constantly explain why they are not for sale. Or it'll just turn into the mall hot-spot for young men and teens who 'just want to see how this whole XBox-thing works' and they'll crowd out whatever real customers the store would attract to the consoles. (you know, like the dweebs that cluster around the PS3 demos at Walmart)

....no wait! I know! Everybody will go to the store just to use a Zune!
 
If Microsoft made their own PCs, they might actually be good. I'm guessing Apple does such a good job is partially because they create and work in a controlled environment.
 
What will they sell in there? (Obviously Microsoft products but it's not as if demoing Windows 7 on a generic machine has anything particularly Microsoft-ish about it?) Mice? Random MS software? Doesn't sound too inspirational to me. The apple store works because it gives users the chance to use Apple products that are exciting and fun. Can you imagine going into a store to demo Windows Vista/XP/Windows 7/w.e.

This won't work because M$ is a software company... software isn't something you can touch and feel and meet in person.

Apple stores work because Apple actually has a physical product - you can go up to a computer and use it...

Exactly, and Apple has a carefully cultivated corporate image, which it also sells through the Apple Stores. This may the single, largest contribution Steve Jobs made to Apple. When you walk into an Apple Store, you're invited into the "world of Apple." You immediately know where you are, the same as when you walk into a Gap or an Old Navy store. If you look at all the other retail efforts by technology companies, they failed if for no other reason than they had no unified corporate image or brand identity to transmit to customers. Gateway came close with their "country store," but this had no legs probably because it was unrelated to the technology products they were selling.

So what is Microsoft's corporate image, and how are they going to sell it in a retail setting? That's the real question. I think they're going to have a really tough time coming up with an appealing version of their corporate image.
 
Because retail sales are doing so darn well lets open up our own stores. :confused: :rolleyes:

I'm sure microsoft had this planned before the November Recession/Depression. But still one on the inside would have thought that this is the wrong time for new adventures.
 
But.... What's the point...? NOBODY WILL GO TO THEM!

Windows is so dominant that if someone has a problem with their software, they'll get a mate or a friend to sort it out... and if it's a hardware issue then Microsoft can do nothing about it.
 
Apple is not the first one to have retail stores, nor the one that made retail stores popular. I don't see how this is copying at all.

No one is claiming that Apple was the first company to open retail stores. But Apple does seem to be the first company in the computer space to have opened retail stores so successfully. In fact, Apple's success as a retailer is quite striking, especially given all of the naysayers who predicted that they would fail. So, it is undoubtedly Apple's success as a retailer that Microsoft would like to copy, and how much do you want to bet that they'll attempt to do so by copying some of what makes Apple stores so successful - i.e, the Genius Bar, high-traffic/high-end locations, upscale design, low-pressure salespeople, etc? To imply that Microsoft's retail initiative will in no way attempt to copy Apple's accomplishments in retail is not realistic.
 
Again?:confused: I remember Microsoft opening a store in San Francisco a few years back (9 or 10 years ago or there about). That turned out to be a flop.:p:rolleyes: That was when they were an unstoppable juggernaut steamrolling the competition. Unless they learned from that they'll end up with another Zune on their hands. Might as well call it the Zune Store.:rolleyes:
 
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