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Microsoft Signs Leases to Open Retail Stores in Arizona and California
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so, let 'em play.
seems like a big investment for a looooong-term goal. i don't foresee these two stores making a huge initial impact. i'm sure best buy isn't going to be too happy, but with comp usa and circuit city closing, there aren't many options for pc buyers. it's always good to have a second opinion, i suppose. but i wonder what pc manufacturers are going to say. there's no way the ms shops can prominently display all of them, and there's probably going to be some serious kick-backs for selling certain brands. might we see a rise of linux in the future as a slap-in-the-face to microsoft?
anyway, as far as initial impact goes, i can definitely see some apple fanboy vandalism coming to these ms stores. oh, i can only wait and dream.
on a side-note, competition is always good, but apple is known not to release a product until it is good and solid and ready to go. the first junky, quickly released mac will be its own downfall, just as pc preference will be microsoft's.
i'm excited to see what this brings.
seems like a big investment for a looooong-term goal. i don't foresee these two stores making a huge initial impact. i'm sure best buy isn't going to be too happy, but with comp usa and circuit city closing, there aren't many options for pc buyers. it's always good to have a second opinion, i suppose. but i wonder what pc manufacturers are going to say. there's no way the ms shops can prominently display all of them, and there's probably going to be some serious kick-backs for selling certain brands. might we see a rise of linux in the future as a slap-in-the-face to microsoft?
anyway, as far as initial impact goes, i can definitely see some apple fanboy vandalism coming to these ms stores. oh, i can only wait and dream.
on a side-note, competition is always good, but apple is known not to release a product until it is good and solid and ready to go. the first junky, quickly released mac will be its own downfall, just as pc preference will be microsoft's.
i'm excited to see what this brings.
I must have forgot that Apple invented the concept of a brick and mortar store to sell ones products.
Apple copied the concept/idea from Gateway.
Right, and you what failed to mention is that Apple's stores opened AFTER Gateway Country closed, so Apple took the risk at "Copying" (as you call it) an already failed venture. On the other hand Microsoft waits a good long time after Apple shows phenomenal success with their stores to open their own.
Far as I am concerned, Apple is the risk taker and Microsoft once again trails behind the winning team.
Microsoft opens retail store at Sony Metreon in San Francisco in June 1999.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/jun99/microsoftsfpr.mspx
I've been to it. It was open almost two years before the first Apple store opened in May, 2001.
So who is copping who again?
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/jun99/microsoftsfpr.mspx
I've been to it. It was open almost two years before the first Apple store opened in May, 2001.
So who is copping who again?
It fits in with the horrible commercials Bill Gates got sucked into.
Also, is that the ghost of Loren in the artist's drawing looking for support for her "half price" laptop? Could be... Love the line of flat screen monitors displaying "blue screens of death." A PC owner will feel right at home there.
If Apple was copying MS, then they'd have opened a store next door a couple years later...or they might have hired the guy that did the leg work to lease the MS site and put the store package together. Had Apple copied MS, they would have already closed all their stores by now too.
THAT, my friend is what copying is.
The Microsoft store at Metreon was kind of funny because there was another store right next to it called 'The Way Things Work' so I always called the MS store "The Way Things Don't Work"...
It was not a particularly interesting place as I recall.
It was not a particularly interesting place as I recall.
FACT: MS HAD A RETAIL STORE TWO YEARS BEFORE THE FIRST APPLE STORE OPENED.
Nothing you say will ever change that. Sorry.
MicrosoftSF was a fun place to go. Many interactive stuff to do. Maybe they will do a even better job the second time around. I wish them luck.
Not, not really supposed to be a positive. I'm saying that in vista, to unmount a USB flash drive, you have to right click the "Remove Safely" icon in the system tray, then click on the device, then click stop after it shows you around 4 things the device is ... it looked really disconcerting. I'd show you a screenshot if I could.
Also, I haven't used XP in a while but I imagine that in XP and in Vista it'd just be easier to go to My Computer, right click the drive, and click eject. I was only talking about doing it from the system tray.
OS X and Ubuntu (at least with the Gnome desktop environment and nautilus file system) do users a favor by showing mounted devices on the desktop and you can unmount from there, something I wish windows would do by default.
Selling their OS to all the other hardware manufacturers instead of restricting it to just one. That was a pretty original idea. It enabled them to conquer the world.
Vive le resistance!
Actually I think it's a case of you making an ill informed comment and getting your ass kicked.
Just sayin'.
Back on topic...
So MS are copying Apple who copied Sony who copied GAP who copied...
Does this list actually have an end and, more importantly, who actually cares?
Ignorant, ignorant flag waving propaganda. No matter how much you hate MS they are a bigger company than Apple and make more money too. Not everything they touch turns to crap.
XBox 360 makes them money, you won't want to hear it but its true. XBox Live was around before Sony got their act together so your second point is completely false. What the hell is stale growth? You sound like you couldn't come up with an actual point so you put the word stale in front of something that was actually positive.
Stop posting arse like this or we'll be forced to mention Apple TV and the Pippin.
I'd really like to know where you got this data from. Considering the company I work for is currently upgrading to the latest Office software. Not to mention that the company my wife works for, that manages office computer systems, is busy at the moment writing proposals for major companies to upgrade too.
If you would be so kind as to link your source I would very much like to pass it on to my wife so that she can inform her clients that the millions of euros that they are about to spend isn't really worth their while.
What....no source?! The door is over there then!
This wouldn't be incredibly funny if MS made product which was slack default garbage which cornered the market with messy bloated programming.
How will they be able to show the benefits of their stuff? There aren't any? MS is a lazy corner of mass marketing which works for the lazy consumer who can't calculate the benefits of time and money.
The great thing about the Apple store was the clean look drawing in the eyes, then the obvious benefits of the user interface and ease of operation.
Expect some clunky boxes with mismatched colors, strewn in salads of cord and peripherals. That's MS for ya.
How will they be able to show the benefits of their stuff? There aren't any? MS is a lazy corner of mass marketing which works for the lazy consumer who can't calculate the benefits of time and money.
The great thing about the Apple store was the clean look drawing in the eyes, then the obvious benefits of the user interface and ease of operation.
Expect some clunky boxes with mismatched colors, strewn in salads of cord and peripherals. That's MS for ya.
Bungie isn't owned by MS anymore. This took place after the release of Halo 3. MS makes money on the console now (unlike Sony). XBL was out before Sony ever had PSN. So in that aspect Sony is trying to keep up with MS.
The DS and the Wii print money... The only two consoles that I know of that Nintendo lost money on are the Virtual Boy and (for one quarter) the Gamecube. MS recently has been making money on the 360 hardware.Yeah, maybe it'll just turn into an arcade. All consoles are pretty much loss leaders for the software and can use all the help they can get.
You're not expecting massive keyboard sales, right?
They re finally putting that overpriced Coffee table to work from the looks of it. Hope it blue screens... Why? Whats the point, its an old concept that never took off. What all the pointy, touchy, wavey concepts have to realise is people want something done fast (ATMs as an example?) or without fatigue (Try vertical touchscreens and tell me how your arm feels) or relax. (In the games sense, the wii is NOT relaxing)
Anyway, this is more of a waste of money, most stores already showcase Windows like its the bloody new coming or show how to use it for free. (I realize theres more than windows but does office already need showcasing?)
I hope the 360s RROD too, so Microsoft arent lying to the public. *snicker
Anyway, this is more of a waste of money, most stores already showcase Windows like its the bloody new coming or show how to use it for free. (I realize theres more than windows but does office already need showcasing?)
I hope the 360s RROD too, so Microsoft arent lying to the public. *snicker
Sony had basic online functions before the original Xbox did. (Ratchet and Clank, SOCOM etc) Sony will make megabucks on BluRay anyway. Flash technology just isnt up there yet in the cheap department. Or the 250-500GB department. (Google what TDK and Pioneer are doing)
Yes they had online support, but it wasn't anything like XBL (ie unified). Until PSN came out with the PS3. Even then it is slowly coming on par with XBL (cross game chat, background downloading, cross game invites). Yeah TDK and Panasonic have larger than 50GB discs that should be compatible with current readers (can't say the same with the burners).
Sony have started taking a different approach to XBL with Home. It seems to be on thin ice still.
TBH though XBL seems to be filled with high pitched whiney little brats. (The brats cant afford a PS3 ^_^, I like to keep my hearing thanks) Theres also no worldwide servers.
Pioneer said they were going to release their 400GB one in 2009, doubt it though. I wish they would release one, at least one... even if it was 200GB!!!
God send... Yes!!!
The way you worded that suggests the exact opposite.
And yes, nearly everything MS does somehow, mysteriously, suggests they have an R&D budget that is a fraction of its actual size. Look at what MS has rolled out since 2001. Since MS doesn't make computers, I'd expect the software end of its business to trump everything else in usability and design. Far from it. The software Apple bundles with OS X is the envy of the industry - and that's just what already comes with the machine! Look at what Apple has rolled out since 2001, in all of its divisions. It doesn't take a market analyst or entrepreneurial mastermind to see that something is very, very wrong at Microsoft with respect to the consumer side of their business. Where's the money going???
Yes, for both Apple and NeXT. He wanted to improve the computing world, he did GREATLY.
you're right. I threw up a generic error making the point that MS hasn't been able to fix the most basic of problems and you guys go and trouble shoot the ACTUAL error I throw up there.
Oh well.
But in that case it isn't Microsofts fault, BSOD is a kernel panic. It is pretty much always a driver problem (which is why Vista moved so many drivers out of kernel space).
Sony have started taking a different approach to XBL with Home. It seems to be on thin ice still.
TBH though XBL seems to be filled with high pitched whiney little brats. (The brats cant afford a PS3 ^_^, I like to keep my hearing thanks) Theres also no worldwide servers.
Pioneer said they were going to release their 400GB one in 2009, doubt it though. I wish they would release one, at least one... even if it was 200GB!!!
God send... Yes!!!
High pitched whiney little brats? On XBox Live? No way! Honestly the XBox Live children really get on my nerves, that is one reason I like PS3, seems to be less of 'them'.