Microsoft Stores Are Permanently Closing

[Donnation]

I've been in the Washington DC store a couple of times and always thought it was really cool. It was never really crowded when I've been in there but the store had a ton of cool tech in there and it was a fun experience just walking around in it. I only went in to look around and never bought anything, which I guess is what most people were doing.

 

[raftman]

Wow I think this is a big mistake. A 1.5 trillion dollar company is worried about losing money at their stores? The stores put the Surface products on the map. And the Xbox Games and VR demos were neat. They should consider the stores part of their advertising budget.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Wow I think this is a big mistake. A 1.5 trillion dollar company is worried about losing money at their stores? The stores put the Surface products on the map. And the Xbox Games and VR demos were neat. They should consider the stores part of their advertising budget.

I don't see anywhere in the article that they are closing the stores because the stores are losing money. The reason they give is not about that. It seems more about shifting their focus. Don't forget that MS has a completely different customer base than Apple. The focus of MS is more on corporate customers and less on consumer electronics. Most corporate customers don't need a physical store.

Also the Xbox, Surface devices can be found in lots of other brick and mortars.
I must admit that I am from Europe and in Europe MS has only a hand full of physical stores but is sold mostly online and in lots of other physical shops. As far as I know plenty of people are buying Surface Devices, Xboxes and other MS stuff here.
Don't forget Apple has not many physical stores in Europe either (relatively speaking), and is also mostly sold here online and through other brick and mortar stores.

 

[cmaier]

I don't see anywhere in the article that they are closing the stores because the stores are losing money. The reason they give is not about that. It seems more about shifting their focus. Don't forget that MS has a completely different customer base than Apple. The focus of MS is more on corporate customers and less on consumer electronics. Most corporate customers don't need a physical store.

Also the Xbox, Surface devices can be found in lots of other brick and mortars.
I must admit that I am from Europe and in Europe MS has only a hand full of physical stores but is sold mostly online and in lots of other physical shops. As far as I know plenty of people are buying Surface Devices, Xboxes and other MS stuff here.
Don't forget Apple has not many physical stores in Europe either (relatively speaking), and is also mostly sold here online and through other brick and mortar stores.

If stores were making money, they’d be in plenty of focus. “We’re changing our strategy with retail - we’re eliminating retail” is essentially what they said. No company is going to admit they lost money.

 

[Starfyre]

The Microsoft Store is amazing, screens all around, lots of glass, open design. It's beauty comes from a lack of uniformity because of all the diversity in manufacturers and products they have from so many different companies in it's ecosystem. They even have an area where they have LAN Game competitions and demos too!

 

[cmaier]

The Microsoft Store is amazing, screens all around, lots of glass, open design. It's beauty comes from a lack of uniformity because of all the diversity in manufacturers and products they have from so many different companies in it's ecosystem. They even have an area where they have LAN Game competitions and demos too!

Not any more they don’t

 

[citysnaps]

Years ago I rememberer when Microsoft brought two stores to the SF Bay Area. And intentionally located them near existing Apple stores, at the Stanford and Valley Fair malls. Apparently thinking customers could be easily siphoned away from the Apple Stores.

That was certainly a strategic blunder. The Apple Stores were always packed and busy with customers, with the Microsoft Stores full of blue-shirted salespeople standing around and maybe a couple of kids playing video games

Terrible optics.

 

[370zulu]

We ventured into the store at the Kenwood Mall near Cincinnati a couple of times. It was easy to tell that it was a blatant copy of the Apple Store. That same store was occupied by rude staff who were more interested in playing on their smart phones on both visits.

Even though I do not play video games, I really believe that Micro$oft would do better with an Xbox store.

 

[groove-agent]

I feel if MS wants to follow Apple they need to create an ecosystem of products. Without a phone, this could be difficult. They should have continued to work on it until it was perfected. With control of Windows 10, they could keep inventing some synergistic features using familiar UI elements of Windows.

You're right though. With a history of failure, who wants to invest in a MS product only to have them abandon it a few years later.

In my opinion, the Surface has been their best invention to date. I love the idea of having one device that does (almost) everything running regular apps instead of simplified versions. Rather than having several devices (Apple), you can have one device which is excellent value to the consumer albeit less sales for the seller (Apple). The iPad is slowly getting there, but still has a way to go to become a desktop replacement.

While the Surface can run regular apps, now Macs will be able to run iOS apps. They're kind of going the other way around. This could mean some sort of eventual OS convergence but in order to do so, a developer would simply create an iOS app and hope that the experience transitions to MacOS. It should be interesting to see how this all plays out.

As a gadget geek, I would love to see a phone that doubles as your personal computer. You could dock it to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I know there has been a few attempts at this but for this to work, the phone will have to run a full OS and not Android.

Both google and Microsoft have a history of just releasing every “neat” idea, seeing if any of them gain traction, and dumping the rest.

It’s certainly one way to go. Of course, that means you shouldn’t fall in love with any given product or project, because when it goes away you may be screwed.

Microsoft has been moving away from this and closer to apple’s “curation” model, which may explain why they have been gaining some love lately.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

I feel if MS wants to follow Apple they need to create an ecosystem of products. Without a phone, this could be difficult. They should have continued to work on it until it was perfected. With control of Windows 10, they could keep inventing some synergistic features using familiar UI elements of Windows.

You're right though. With a history of failure, who wants to invest in a MS product only to have them abandon it a few years later.

In my opinion, the Surface has been their best invention to date. I love the idea of having one device that does (almost) everything running regular apps instead of simplified versions. Rather than having several devices (Apple), you can have one device which is excellent value to the consumer albeit less sales for the seller (Apple). The iPad is slowly getting there, but still has a way to go to become a desktop replacement.

While the Surface can run regular apps, now Macs will be able to run iOS apps. They're kind of going the other way around. This could mean some sort of eventual OS convergence but in order to do so, a developer would simply create an iOS app and hope that the experience transitions to MacOS. It should be interesting to see how this all plays out.

As a gadget geek, I would love to see a phone that doubles as your personal computer. You could dock it to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I know there has been a few attempts at this but for this to work, the phone will have to run a full OS and not Android.

Your premise seems wrong. MS does not need nor want to follow Apple. Apple is a consumer electronics oriented company. That is only a tiny teeny part of MS. MS is much more corporate oriented. Therefore they decided that they simply don't need physical stores. But still, both are 1.5 trillion dollar companies and both are doing very well in their own way. Each can hold their own shtick. You make it look like MS must be like Apple to be successful. You could not be farther from the truth. Apples and oranges....

 

[andreiru]

London ms shops are empty too.

 

[groove-agent]

That's why I said "if MS wants to follow Apple".

One could argue that they have tried to follow Apple when you consider the Zune, Windows phone, MS Store, and producing computing hardware. As far as I recall, Apple did all these things before MS.

Your premise seems wrong. MS does not need nor want to follow Apple. Apple is a consumer electronics oriented company. That is only a tiny teeny part of MS. MS is much more corporate oriented. Therefore they decided that they simply don't need physical stores. But still, both are 1.5 trillion dollar companies and both are doing very well in their own way. Each can hold their own shtick. You make it look like MS must be like Apple to be successful. You could not be farther from the truth. Apples and oranges....

 

[cmaier]

That's why I said "if MS wants to follow Apple".

One could argue that they have tried to follow Apple when you consider the Zune, Windows phone, MS Store, and producing computing hardware. As far as I recall, Apple did all these things before MS.

Stop. Zune was highly innovative and daring in its own right.

It came in brown.

 

[Gudi]

Why having stores, when you don’t have products?

 

[aussie_geek]

Bit of a disappointment the MS stores are closing. Thing is, in the PC space, Microsoft devices and services are actually quite good for those in the market for a decent non budget Windows PC. Whenever a person asks me on a recommendation for a new piece of hardware, I nearly always suggest a Mac, but for those in the PC world, a switch to Mac for them just seems all too hard.

A Microsoft Surface product is nearly always my next suggestion. Their hardware is top quality and has refined hardware for their software. For example - Windows Hello on the Surface Book. I have one of their first generation ones used for PC specific Apps. Works perfectly.

If they ever have any problems with it, there would be a physical location for them to go and troubleshoot or get a warranty replacement or service etc. As a part of the Apple ecosystem, we take this for granted - it's always been there for us.

There is a space and market for Microsoft stores. Perhaps by stocking non Microsoft hardware it has resulted in their demise. They are relatively new to the hardware sector. Get back to basics - sell your own hardware and a selection of curated peripherals that will make it shine (AKA Apple's first retail store from about 20 years ago )

 

[cmaier]

They are relatively new to the hardware sector.

They started selling hardware in 1980.

 

[unplugme71]

Never understood the MS store. I felt they went about it wrong - just like the 4 or 5 times they tried to make a Windows phone.

They should have focused on selling Surface only items and other MS only products like Office/Windows and had a dedicated gaming corner for Xbox.

Instead it looked more like a Best Buy of mixed bag items with no perks (pricing was higher, staff was still whatever, etc....)

Lots of missed opportunity to spend in a training session on how to use the new Windows/Office, selling their own hardware only, etc...
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Bit of a disappointment the MS stores are closing. Thing is, in the PC space, Microsoft devices and services are actually quite good for those in the market for a decent non budget Windows PC. Whenever a person asks me on a recommendation for a new piece of hardware, I nearly always suggest a Mac, but for those in the PC world, a switch to Mac for them just seems all too hard.

A Microsoft Surface product is nearly always my next suggestion. Their hardware is top quality and has refined hardware for their software. For example - Windows Hello on the Surface Book. I have one of their first generation ones used for PC specific Apps. Works perfectly.

If they ever have any problems with it, there would be a physical location for them to go and troubleshoot or get a warranty replacement or service etc. As a part of the Apple ecosystem, we take this for granted - it's always been there for us.

There is a space and market for Microsoft stores. Perhaps by stocking non Microsoft hardware it has resulted in their demise. They are relatively new to the hardware sector. Get back to basics - sell your own hardware and a selection of curated peripherals that will make it shine (AKA Apple's first retail store from about 20 years ago )

This I always say get a Mac or Surface.

 

[jonnysods]

But Microsoft makes no hardware to speak of?

Are you sure about that? They have a hardware lineup and then can use other hardware to showcase Microsoft services etc.

 

[Huntn]

Are you sure about that? They have a hardware lineup and then can use other hardware to showcase Microsoft services etc.

If I was sure, I would not have used a “?”.

 

[groove-agent]

Wow I think this is a big mistake. A 1.5 trillion dollar company is worried about losing money at their stores? The stores put the Surface products on the map. And the Xbox Games and VR demos were neat. They should consider the stores part of their advertising budget.

Maybe they think their kiosks at Best Buy will be similar representation but much less cost of ownership.

 

[groove-agent]

I'm on the fence with this.

On one hand I believe that corporate customers/ clients are more lucrative as they have more money to spend.

On the other hand I'd be willing to bet there are more consumers than corporations and money to be made here. Apple has been pursuing this market for a while and clearly it has worked for them (iPhone, App Store etc). Perhaps one advantage is that if they can control and saturate the consumer market, those consumers are the people who are making decisions in the corporate market.

MS has tried to enter the consumer market (Zune, Windows Phone), but with very limited success. The only hardware product that has gained traction is the surface, but this could change in 5 years as iPads (seemingly slowly) become more capable computers.

I personally believe that MS gives up to easily and needs better idea people to come up with the function, and better designers to tweak the form. They need to leverage the popularity of Windows 10 to create an ecosystem of products that work well together, much like Apple has to give people a reason to invest in their group of products.

I don't see anywhere in the article that they are closing the stores because the stores are losing money. The reason they give is not about that. It seems more about shifting their focus. Don't forget that MS has a completely different customer base than Apple. The focus of MS is more on corporate customers and less on consumer electronics. Most corporate customers don't need a physical store.

Also the Xbox, Surface devices can be found in lots of other brick and mortars.
I must admit that I am from Europe and in Europe MS has only a hand full of physical stores but is sold mostly online and in lots of other physical shops. As far as I know plenty of people are buying Surface Devices, Xboxes and other MS stuff here.
Don't forget Apple has not many physical stores in Europe either (relatively speaking), and is also mostly sold here online and through other brick and mortar stores.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

I've been in Microsoft stores a couple of times. They were very neat, clean, uncluttered, and the people wanted to be helpful.

I think the problem was twofold: First, that MS stores were an obvious copy of Apple stores. Second, MS does not sell anything tangible in sufficient volume to make having a significant retail presence worthwhile. The Surface family of products doesn't begin to compete volume-wise with iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Airs (the products I see being purchased most often in Apple stores, excluding accessories).