The thing is for me is I'm trying to figure out the business sense for the Microsoft Stores. It's almost like they just plain aren't needed. We've already seen a number of computer-related stores, in the past 6 years, which pretty much sold the exact same things, already go out of business. I think the market already trimmed down to certain major non-specialty outlets which can also sell lots of PCs.
The problem I forsee with their Help service (which is the only thing I see their stores having that other stores wouldn't have (and at a discount)), is that the PC platform in no way can help with 80% of the issues people have with the PC. It seems like the only reliable help you can get from them is how to use Microsoft Office and questions about the Windows operating system functions. Yep, they'll know about registries and be able to check through there. I wish them good luck with everything else, though. There's sooooo much (literally millions if not billions of things) that is out of Microsoft's hands, and their version of the "Genious" Bar becomes the "We'll personally get you started on the good internet and phone call run around, but at least you talked to a real person first" Bar.
Specialty stores, whether Apple or not, are generally for those who build everything about the unit. That is. If they issue both the hardware and software. An Appliance for which the company solely makes, which includes interior electronics.
PCs, and one of the reasons they dominated so much, have so many different manufacturers involved. Thus millions of different drivers, hidden hardware incompatibilities, driver version incompatibilities based on exact hardware configs (like something that doesn't have a problem unless you combine *this specific motherboard model* with *This specific video card*). If they manage to pull off an actual helpful Helpdesk in all except a couple of basic functions (We teach you how to use Office, Windows), then I'll be impressed. They'd have to educate folks to do so on a scale that's practically exponentially higher than what the Apple Store Genious Bar needs.
But my initial thought is that Microsoft *so* didn't need to make Microsoft stores. It does so very little for them for so much. This is MS literally throwing money away to make barely a bit of difference in their marketplace for which so much of that money could be put to R&D, etc. Heck, one major reason for MS being able to give Sony a run for their money, in the console business, is that Sony threw too much unnecessary stuff in way too many baskets, and they lost their way for a while. MS was being smart at keeping things tight and not spread themselves too thin. And MS PR representatives have been quoted to say just that. Now they want to spread out everywhere at once, reversing their policy. Only *recently* do they really want to push hard into the Phone market. They now want to break hard into their own Portable gaming machines, in the same vein. They now want stores like Apple. I fear they'll suffer like Sony did, on the deal; and I think some of their divisions will have a harder time recovering from the lost business, from falling back on their laurels, than Sony.
So in a way, I'm not balking at good competition. I'm just voicing concerns that this wouldn't be a good smart venture for Microsoft at this time. They spread themselves too thin at the wrong time and it'll kill some of their markets. Let's not forget other companies are gunning for Microsoft at the same time.
