Posted on 10/26/2015 8:08:38 PM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft is opening its first-ever flagship store in New York City on Monday, with a vibrant retail space that showcases the best of Microsoft products and services.
An opening six years in the making, the Microsoft Flagship Store blends the world-famous retail experience of Fifth Avenue with innovative technology that is part of Microsoft’s DNA.
“One of our goals, since we started the stores in 2009, was to have a real marquee location where we could bring an expanded retail presence,” said Kelly Soligon, general manager, Worldwide Marketing, Microsoft Retail and Online Stores.
The flagship store, at 677 Fifth Ave., is one of more than 110 retail stores across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. It is the first Microsoft Store to extend two stories, and at 22,269 square feet, is the largest to date.
The extensive footage allows the store to showcase a wide array of best-in-class products that take advantage of powerful and versatile hardware to unlock new Windows 10 experiences, including new Surface, Lumia and Microsoft Band devices, Signature Edition PCs, Xbox One, Office, a variety of accessories and more. The flagship store is the only location to showcase Microsoft Surface Hub.
The store’s Answer Desk—which offers expert support for PCs and phones regardless of where a customer bought the device—is larger than that of other Microsoft Stores. Its two community theaters offer roomy event space for free community and educational programs. And on Monday evening, the store will host eager fans awaiting the launch of “Halo 5: Guardians,” with opportunities to meet developers from 343 Industries, the game’s creator.
Team members at the flagship store team speak a total of 19 languages, including Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic and Russian, to help customers from New York and around the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.microsoft.com ...
Then you must be as liberal as they come. Last time I checked, the Apple Lisa and Apple Macintosh came out with their GUI operating system years before Microsoft came out with Windows. And that was after Steve Jobs allowed Microsoft to access the Macintosh OS code. Apple never first? They definitely were first before Microsoft. That makes you a liar and liberal with your statements!
My iPad case with kickstand capability is an Apple product, not third-party. Quality leather, bought with my iPad years ago.
So what? They were available for the iPad long before Microsoft incorporated those 3rd party case designs into the hardware of the Surface. . . It makes no difference. . . except to add unnecessary weight to the tablet portion of the Surface for when you just want to carry it. If you just want to carry the iPad, you don't have to carry the extraneous weight. You do with the Surface. All those extra grams of everything you include that are unnecessary for everyone total up to extra weight and add to the price.
LoL... But when MS was still trying to use a pen to use desktop Windows on a mobile device, apple came out with touch and iOS.
And from what I’ve seen, and read, thus far, Apple has nailed the pen.
Huh? Extra weight? Have you even held a surface? Clearly you don’t understand.
Yes the pencil is catching up to the surface pen. They may even add an eraser in a future release (like the surface).
Of course I've held a Surface. . . and I understand better than obviously do you. ANYTIME an engineer adds mechanisms to a device, such as the kickstand, it adds extra weight over the option of not adding mechanisms. . . or he must trade off not adding something else, for example extra batteries for longer use. . . or perhaps a cellular radio and antenna because of the space occupied by the something he's added. Choosing a kickstand over a cellular radio or extra batteries was an engineering or a marketing choice.
Which one do you think it was? Looking at the ads showing ecstatic dancers clicking and kick standing, I think it must have been marketing. . .
Shows how little you know. What makes you think the Apple Pencil doesn't have an eraser? Did someone tell you that lie, or did you make it up all on your own?
Is that like "settled science"?
Actually shows how little you know. You can not just turn the pencil over and erase...like you do with the surface pen.
How about turning the entire device over and shaking it, like you do with an Etch-A-Sketch?
That would be a pretty cool app for a drawing pad. Etch a sketch.
And every Apple store is full of losers trying to get their very expensive phones to work.
Love the new iPhone OS update ‘feature’ by the way - if you lose your wifi connection it automatically kicks in you data, running up huge bills without you even being warned about it.
Sure. But with all the possible visual approaches MS could take, they took the one that -- superficially -- resembles that of the Apple stores. It's not a big deal -- as you point out, Apple was hardly the first. I only mentioned the similarity because it surprised me.
> It's interesting to look on Google Maps to see that location, which happens to show it before Microsoft moved in. It was a clothing store. They completely redid the facade but I suspect the basic structure of the building remained intact.
Yes. The Ars Technica article I linked to in my initial comment has more pics of the interior. It does look a lot like it was a clothing store. It also works pretty nicely as a technology store.
> I also notice that Microsoft cleverly edited out the names of the other stores visible in their picture, which is sort of interesting.
I suspect there's a legal basis for that, to avoid the other companies getting torqued about being included in MS marketing content.
For two decades, Apple was the only serious choice in artistic content work, and so all the movie and tv writers and other personnel were familiar with Apple gear. Windows was seen as drab corporate enterprise, business-oriented software that couldn't be artistic if it tried. That started changing in the last 10 years, and now Windows is seen as a reasonable platform for creative artistic work. It still has a way to go to surpass Apple gear, but it's at least a stronger contender than ever before.
You're making this up. How about posting a link to a study with stats? Thought so, you can't. Unless you personally have an iPhone and encountered this (as a "loser"). From what I've seen, people at the Genius Bar are there getting tips and training for the most part, or having their new machine configured. Few iPhone customers complaining. As for Microsoft, they copied Apple Store by having an "Answer Desk", which is really an "excuse desk" for the things they get wrong. I was just at the Apple Store last week, helping someone pick up a new MacBook Pro. Genius Bar watched on as I set it up, which took a minute to turn on and set an admin account password. I didn't see any customers there with problems; but then again you probably weren't there.
Reminds me of a discussion with a former co-worker a few years ago (I'm long retired). He mentioned watching a music video on YouTube where all the instruments in the band were iPads. He was berating some musicians for faking it by shaking the iPad and tapping on it as if they were tamborines or other instruments. I informed him that the iPad has internal sensors that detect motion and position, and that it does indeed simulate music instruments when shaken and turned upside down for music apps. They're amazing devices, and one might not know the usefulness unless actually using one. Probably why Microsoft came out with the Surface after their CEO knocked the iPad years prior as unnecessary. More options are a good thing, as I'm sure Surface owners would agree.
That’s the one. I have several guitar, piano and trombone apps on my iPads. Tablets are great platforms for playing music as well as for learning music theory. Been playing trombone since I was a kid, and can do it on the iPad without disturbing anyone else. (Not that I disturbed anyone with my trombone when younger, but I’m rusty now.)
This summer, Walnut Creek, CA. Lines going out the door of the Apple Store downtown. Asked what they were waiting in line for - OS rollback issues.
Two months later, Lynnwood, WA, Place was hopping again, but employees were standing around. Someone got irate and asked why he wasn’t being helped - guy was in sales, not tech. The sales people were standing around while the ‘geniuses’ (the arrogance of that) were being mobbed.
Great cameras in those phones, and that’s about where it stops.
Who invents a phone you can’t do a standard battery-pull reset?
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