In a warehouse near its Redmond, Wash.,
campus, Microsoft created mockups for
how Microsoft products might be displayed
either in its own stores or in a retailer's.
Posted on 02/13/2009 11:06:32 AM PST by lainie
Microsoft Corp. said it hired a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive to help the company open its own retail stores, a strategy shift that borrows from the playbook of rival Apple Inc.
The Redmond, Wash., company said it hired David Porter, most recently the head of world-wide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG, as corporate vice president of retail stores for Microsoft.
In a statement, Microsoft said the first priority of Mr. Porter, who is also a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart, will be to define where to place the Microsoft stores and when to open them. A Microsoft spokesman said the company's current plans are for a "small number" of stores.
In a warehouse near its Redmond, Wash., campus, Microsoft created mockups for how Microsoft products might be displayed either in its own stores or in a retailer's.
It remains to be seen whether the effort can add some pizzazz to Microsoft's unfashionable image, which Apple has sought to reinforce with ads that mock its competitor. Mr. Porter, in a statement, said there are "tremendous opportunities" for Microsoft to create a "world-class shopping experience" for the company's customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
In a warehouse near its Redmond, Wash.,
campus, Microsoft created mockups for
how Microsoft products might be displayed
either in its own stores or in a retailer's.
At the risk of incurring a label of Windows Hater or Microsoft Basher.... WTH are they thinking?!
Hey, whatever happened to all those Gateway stores that were around a few years back?
ping
Kind of like a lot of their user interface.
I wonder if there’ll be a Zune section. The Zune sections at the local stores have to be the loneliest places on Earth.
I think putting an actual face in a retail store could be good for Microsoft. There’s a chance they could actually start being responsive to customer desires when it comes to their software’s shortcomings.
Given their track record to date, theres a good chance that this will fail. MS just doesn’t seem to follow through when something seems to be difficult. They’re so big it seems it’s easier for them to just give up rather than make it work. I think they’ll have a hard road in front of them.
So a store that’s going to sell......what? Software? Unless they think people are going to travel to a M/S store for the Xbox or Zunapalooza?
Apple sells desktops, laptops, the iPhone, the iPod, etc. You know, things people actually WANT to buy.
Actually it is an excellent idea and years past when I recommended to do this. The corner the business market, they next release of Windows, now in beta is excellent and blows Vista and XP away.
These stores will provide local support and people will be able to use them in the malls and have help for problems.
They are following the Apple business model and this, for the next 3-5 years based on all the notebooks and desktops and laptops will be very successful.
You must have missed the last electronic show, everything now is windows compatible. My marketing dept is all apple running windows stuff. Very cool.
“At the risk of incurring a label of Windows Hater or Microsoft Basher.... WTH are they thinking?!”
It’s called wanting to sell their product in their own shop. Employing Americans and contributing to the economy.
Yeah, those damn fool bastards!
Let me guess, we should all hate the idea because it’s from Microsoft, right?
Kind of like a lot of their user interface.
Maybe Apple should sue. Oh yeah they did, and got laughed out of court.
Meanwhile Creative gets 100 million from Apple because they copied the iPod interface from them.
You mean like the interface that Apple stole from Xerox?
“So a store that’s going to sell......what? Software? Unless they think people are going to travel to a M/S store for the Xbox or Zunapalooza?
Apple sells desktops, laptops, the iPhone, the iPod, etc. You know, things people actually WANT to buy.
OK.”
Xboxes and Xbox Games
PC Games
Zunes
Windows mobile Phones and PDAs
Media Center PCs
They could sell netbooks and laptops running windows.
MS software titles
Keyboards and Mice
Have demonstrations of stuff from their R&D department like Surface, Photosynth, World Wide Telescope.
Look, I know you want to bash MS for just some bizarre reason that they are MS and it makes you look cool or something, but how about some of you just try to pretend that the Apple products you bought actually came with the iMature software package and be happy that anyone is exploring opening anything in this economic climate.
>Kind of like a lot of their user interface.
>
>Maybe Apple should sue. Oh yeah they did, and got laughed out of court.
<
>Meanwhile Creative gets 100 million from Apple because they copied the iPod interface from them.
OTOH, Borland DID win its case against MS for producing MFC pretty much verbatim from Borland’s OWL.
It’s just that it’s a little late, isn’t it?
Of course not. But they can’t exactly build a great customer satisfaction foundation by not changing their products or tech support and instead putting themselves into shopping malls. I guess I just don’t get it.
And we can’t hate the idea because it’s from Microsoft; it’s not. It’s from Apple!
Actually they could sell laptops that are optimized to really work with their OS - they would have more control of components and drivers. They could also sell Macs with Windows loaded on them as a re-seller.
It’s just that it’s a little late, isn’t it?
Did Obama give an executive order dictating when a store can open?
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