I guess maybe I should parse my words more carefully. I don't see any BUSINESS reason for a Microsoft store. The BUSINESS reason for the Apple Store was that Apple Inc. went to different stores that sold their products, and found the Apple offerings were stuck in a small corner, frequently unplugged or disconnected, and that the sales staff tried to steer customers away from Apple products to Winboxes.
Apple decided the only good way to showcase their products was to do it themselves. They started selling direct because there weren't enough retailers willing and able to support a sales chain. I bought my first Mac at CompUSA, and almost had to fight the sales guy who kept trying to move me to a Sony (Look, if you want to spend that much on a computer, get the Sony! It runs WINDOWS! and it's a REAL computer!)
MS has a huge retail ecosystem, and they have an incredible amount of inertia, in that if you walk into ANY computer store except an Apple Store, and generically ask to see some computers, they're going to take you to Winboxes. You have to make a special effort to get an Apple product. You have to make a special effort NOT to get a Winbox.
It seems to me that MS is risking alienating much of the retail ecosystem that supports them religiously to open a retail chain with little that indicates it will generate significant profits. I still come back to the only reason they're doing it is because Apple did it. Unless they've got big cards they aren't showing, there's no business (profit) reason to do it, especially with the economy heading over a cliff.
“You have to make a special effort to get an Apple product.”
Never had that problem. On the other hand, the Apple Store is full of gay 20 somethings with nose piercings who don’t know shit about aftermarket products that work with Apple.
I found a headset adapter on Ebay for $8) for my iPhone that allows me to use regular headphones (instead of those annoying, uncomfortable ear buds) and still answer the phone. The same product at the iPhone store was some $40 Bose thing and the employees didn’t even know it was hanging on their wall.
I bought my Mac at a non-Apple store. No problems.