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Microsoft to copy Apple again...opening retail stores.

Microsoft already has their products everywhere. They don't have Apple's cachet. Aside from Office, they don't have "must-have" products. What on earth possessed them to launch this concept? The idea that people are gonna be breaking down the doors for Vista and Zune?? :eek: :rolleyes:
 
Thomas Veil said:
Microsoft already has their products everywhere. They don't have Apple's cachet. Aside from Office, they don't have "must-have" products. What on earth possessed them to launch this concept? The idea that people are gonna be breaking down the doors for Vista and Zune?? :eek: :rolleyes:
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For a long time they arguably sold "no choice" products. Is that close enough to "must have?"
 
jashsayani said:
And M$ will just have Microsoft products in the store. So the store will only have Windows, Visual Studio, and other crap-ware....
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Windows... Isn't that the thing that helps Apple sell their Intel machines? Most people only began caring for Apple's computers since they can run Windows on them. I think Microsoft should put Macs in their stores to show off Windows. As they did in Norway:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/25/microsoft-norway-demos-vista-on-a-mac/


Visual Studio... Oh how I wish we had such a decent development environment for OS X - including the choice of programming languages that come with it! Objective-C and Xcode SUCK.


Other crapware... You mean like Microsoft Office? As you know, that's the one and only application suite that makes Apple's platform usable for business purposes.


Apple is a consumer-oriented brand that mostly offers toys for endusers. Microsoft has that, too. But Microsoft also has everything businesses from a one-man company to a world-wide operating enterprise with hundreds of thousands of employees need.

You know, the Apple world is so sad that when you go to a European Gravis Store - which is the largest Apple reseller that we have in Europe - they actually run Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection on the Macs in their stores to access their business software which, of course, is a Windows-based application running on a Microsoft Windows Terminal Server. So much for crapware.

Microsoft's products enable businesses and let people have fun (Xbox, Media Center - WITH a DVR feature). Apple's products enable only Apple's business, and that business is selling crappy music through a crappy online store to a crappy gadget, preferably at Starbuck's, where the fanboys can show off all the over-priced toys that the fruit-branded (logo stolen from the Beatles, by the way) company sold them.

Maybe it's time for the fanboys to think differentLY. All that jealousy at the more successful company - read: Microsoft - comes across very pathetic. It's even more pathetic that there has never been an Apple keynote where they did not try to ridicule Microsoft. But we still have to see the first Microsoft keynote where they make the slightest joke about any of their competitors. Who's showing more greatness here? Hint: It's not Apple.

Both Microsoft and Apple are ugly corporations. The only difference is that Apple sells nicer designs and their customers usually seem to enjoy being ripped off.
 
Melrose said:
...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.
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Haha, sounds like some fun entertainment. Let's all go into the Microsoft stores and fawn over how awesome the hardware looks, ask how much the monitor is, where can I order a PC like this, etc., etc. And oh, I don't need this crap operating system on it, I'd like to order mine with Linux installed instead...
 
Bloake said:
Yes. Apple invented the concept of "store"...
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No, but it's hard to imagine someone at Microsoft saying "Hey, we need to open a chain of retail stores because...."

"The Bose stores are such a big success"

"The Gateway stores really turned that company around"

"The Sony stores are the whole reason Sony is such a big brand"

"Man the Wiis are just flying out of those Nintendo stores"


If Microsoft does this, it's sort of obvious whose stores "inspired" them.
 
Microsoft announced plans to open retail stores, hoping to boost visibility of many of its products and its brand. The move seems to be an effort to mimic the success that Apple has had with its retail stores. The news is just too tempting not to have some fun with. So here are some yet-to-be-officially-revealed details about the Microsoft stores.

1) Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.

2) The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.

3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.

4) The Windows Genuine Advantage team will run storefront security, assuming everybody is a thief until they can prove otherwise.

5) Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).

6) Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.

7) Fashioned after Microsoft's User Account Control (UAC) in Vista, sales personnel will ask you whether you're positive you want to purchase something at least twice.

8) Xbox 360 section of the store will be organized in a ring -- which will inexplicably go red occasionally.

9) DreamWorks will design a scary in-store theme park ride called "blue screen of death."

10) Store emergency exits will be unlocked at all times so people can get in anytime they want even if the front doors are locked.
 
Hey Thomas Veil, not quite true...

Thomas Veil said:
Microsoft already has their products everywhere. They don't have Apple's cachet. Aside from Office, they don't have "must-have" products. What on earth possessed them to launch this concept? The idea that people are gonna be breaking down the doors for Vista and Zune?? :eek: :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They don't have Apple's cachet? Really? When your OS software and desktop application software are worldwide de facto standards to hundreds of millions of desktop and laptop computers, not to mention tens of millions of email servers and office and corporate servers, I think they have cachet. In the business world, besides Office, Visio and Project are must haves. And lets not forget games, which use to be Apple's domain...but now you have to run either MS Windows with bootcamp or Fusion/Parallels to get a real gaming desktop or laptop with an Apple Logo on it. And there are other killer Apps that have not been ported to OSX like AutoCAD. If you are in law school and need to use law school exam software...guess what? It only runs under Windows.

The only true 'Killer App' Apple has is OSX, it its great...not doubt...and Apple has a few niche market apps Aperture and Final Cut. But there are very strong competing products that run under MSW.

MS wants to tell everyone 'we run all the software you need for home, school or office, data center, labs, etc. That is who we are". And it is a compelling message that sustains a 90% market share in a 3 horse race with Apple and Lynx being the other horses.

MS is a highly predatory company, just like Apple. The will copy mimic, steal and borrow to increase market share. And if a competitor is doing something that works, they will try to grab some of that as well. Apple did not invent a hardware and software store they just did a better job than any so far to make it work and work well.

Now, an area that Apple needs to 'sell harder' is its interoperability with other OS' and the ease of connectivity to external devices. No one has ever done this as good as Apple. Maybe that is the true genius of OSX.

Lets deal with facts and not fiction. :cool:

------
17" MBP, 3TB secondary storage, 30" cinema display, Fusion 2.0.2 with Win XP and Win7
 
We're talking retail stores here.

The stuff you mentioned might impress IT managers, but the majority of retail consumers don't get heart palpitations over Visio or AutoCAD the way they do over their iPhones. They don't show off the latest edition of Word to their friends and they don't put Microsoft stickers on their cars.

Market share doesn't mean diddly if the reason people buy your stuff is they feel they have to. That's not cachet, that's control.
 
MisterMe said:
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.
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Agreed. Do all of you saying "retail stores weren't apple's idea" (clearly) really think MS *isn't* copying apple on this one? Seriously? I know there tends to be some apple "fanboyism" (hate the word fanboy, but w/e) on this site, but in this case, there's just no question that this is a response to the success of apple retail stores.
 
Image wagging the dog

IJ Reilly said:
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.
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Sorry to quote so much.

I think the stores will define them, obvious, yeah?! But what this means to me is that they will have an opportunity to 'undue' some of their current image problems. Like that image of (how do i describe this) an insecure reptile with a win-lose mindset. I'd like to see a store that includes MACS, yeah, why b/c they write software for macs, remote desktop app is free and very good, an Office suite, Silverlight plug-in, and a iPhone app. (all i can think of right now). These apps help to define MS, include them.

I think 'coolness' has something to do with being honest about who you are, I hope their stores don't continue to portray them as insecure second movers. I don't want them to pretend Apple doesn't exist in the stores when they (MS) clearly produce multiple products for the mac. This is an image I blame Balmer for, he needlessly criticized the iPhone at its introduction (which, okay) but he does it with so much passion (and lots of blinking) that it really looks pathetic.

I'm nobody but I would like to see Microsoft really lean on the efficiency/affordability of their products, they get stuff done, they are the standard, they are inter operable, they solve problems. They have fun stuff too, but they should try and force a reputation that isn't yet fulfilled by/or doesn't encapsulate their product offerings.

I'm sure my idea is lame, and it is really hard to articulate in a few words but if they are honest about how they are I think they can assuage some of the contempt that they have built for themselves by their own constituency. For example, Microsoft, don't try and be the anti-switchers, or the come from an insecure place of 'switch back, we're the best'. Play to your constituency 90%+ who wants to try new things and maximize the utility they get from their platform choice.

Good luck MS.
 
Preclaro_tipo said:
Sorry to quote so much.
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Me too. ;)

This is Microsoft's fundamental problem -- projecting an appealing image. They've struggled with their image for as long a I can recall, so I can't see how they cure it with a direct retailing effort. For decades their message was "you'll buy our products, like them or not." How does this get translated into consumer appeal, especially when their corporate culture has always been about needing instead of wanting? Very difficult.
 
It's sort of happened already near me. There is a very large branch of Currys (similar to Best Buy) which has an Apple Store concession inside decked out in Apple's black shelving and light wood livery. Next to it is a very similar larger section called the PC section with a very similar set up - all light wood and neat uncluttered displays covered with Sony, Toshiba etc laptops with racks of Windows software on the walls.

Why ignore a winning formula?
 
What could they possible sell there?
I can picture the sales people:
Employee: "So here, is windows vista >>"
Customer: "Can i see it?"
Employee: "I'm sorry, no. We don't actually make computers that you can test it on, so you're going to just have to take it on faith, that it is everything we promise :D"

How many people will walk out of there with no purchase?
 
They COULD put a branded computer in there, and hide it behind a cabinet or something...

Or have a partnership with HP, Dell, or some other company where if Microsoft sells the machines, they give some money to the company.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
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.
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lol.
You have to understand how brainwashing works. I guess either that or they severly lack common sense. :rolleyes:
 
Oh please :rolleyes: Apple were not the first into retail premises , I think that was Noah selling bits off his boat to tourists , fanboys :rolleyes:
 
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