[lainie]

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.

[lainie]

At the risk of incurring a label of Windows Hater or Microsoft Basher.... WTH are they thinking?!

[LearnsFromMistakes]

ping

[GonzoGOP]

This as opposed to offering an OS that doesn't crash, hog memory, open the user up to hackers, and generally not work with any legacy applications or hardware. Yep this is a great idea /sarc

[KarlInOhio]

a strategy shift that borrows from the playbook of rival Apple Inc.

Kind of like a lot of their user interface.

[weef]

I wonder if there’ll be a Zune section. The Zune sections at the local stores have to be the loneliest places on Earth.

[American_Centurion]

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.

[rahbert]

I work 1 building over from the Redmond store. My thoughts: they need to offer more books, and they need to allow software sales to non-FTE’s.

I’d be psyched to be able to get MS SW products without having to mail order or cajole an MS-alum to get it for me.

As for those mocking MS SW quality - you truly have no idea
of the immense amount of expense and effort is spent here on SQA and testing.

[vamoose]

Dumb move. They are now competing against their retailers. This would appear to have only slightly more thought behind it than the porkulus bill.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Judging the way Microsoft has run things recently....this will result in few Americans being hired....but great hiring program for Indians....

H1B Visa hell here we come....

[Swordmaker]

HahahahahaHohohohohohoheheheheheheheh

gasp hahahahahah

gasp

hehehehehehe

gasp hic snort... heeheeheehee PING!

ROTFLMAO - Microsoft to open retail store to compete with Apple's Store...

These keep getting better and better... This is apparently the first thread...

Microsoft competing with copying Apple Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[cowboyway]

I’m not going in a MS store.

Probably catch a virus and be sick for a week...............

[stentorian conservative]

I likes this article about a Microsoft store. Had me in stitches. Definitely a Microsoft bash fest.

Microsoft's retail stores could struggle to lure shoppers 11:05 AM, February 13, 2009

At least someone likes the Microsoft store idea. Credit: LuChOeDu via Flickr. You have to hand it to Microsoft -- despite being mocked in Apple ads and losing market share to its Cupertino, Calif., competitor, the software giant isn't giving up the fight. Late Thursday, Microsoft seemed to take a page from the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" playbook, announcing it had hired a former Wal-Mart manager, David Porter, to open a chain of branded Microsoft stores.

The idea is to make it easier for customers to buy and check out Microsoft products, such as the XBox, Zune and new Windows operating systems.

But will the strategy work in a dismal retail climate, especially for a company that announced its first-ever big layoffs this year? And how do you compete with Apple stores, which seem to draw in passersby with the same magnetism of that tractor beam in the Death Star?

You don't, if you ask analyst Allan B. Krans with Technology Business Research. "In terms of demand generation, Microsoft is putting the cart before the horse," he wrote in a research note today. "Stores do not draw consumers to products; innovative products bring consumers into stores."

Apple's store coincided with the launch of the iPod, which drew people to stores. Microsoft's problem, he says, is that it doesn't have ...

... anything particularly exciting to show off. Microsoft's customers and core base are pretty different than Apple's, Krans says. Not many dedicated PC users are willing to sleep outside a Microsoft store for the newest Windows operating system, like Apple fans did for the iPhone.

"Microsoft cannot lay claim to being new, hip, or edgy," he writes. Sorry, Seinfeld.

Worse, Microsoft might alienate its distributors by trying to compete with them, he writes. And retail stores probably don't need any more competition in this economy. Other tech companies that have ventured into retail have failed, according to the Wall Street Journal, and even Microsoft's half-hearted attempt at opening a store in 1999 was short-lived.

If that isn't pessimistic enough, check out PC World's tongue-in-cheek vision of how the Microsoft store will differ from the Apple store. It includes a theme-park ride called Blue Screen of Death, an "Excuse Bar" rather than a Genius Bar and easy-to-enter emergency exits so that strangers can get in at any time.

-- Alana Semuels

Microsoft's retail stores could struggle to lure shoppers

[big'ol_freeper]

This is a doomed endeavor. Can you imagine the sound of frustrated and pissed off folks lined up at the "Excuse Bar", voices raised, because the MS "geniuses" can't fix their hardware/software problems? "I'm sorry sir, the problem is with your hardware, not the MS software".

This will be emanating through the store at the very same time they are trying to sell products in the rest of the store.

Monty Python couldn't have created a more comical script.

[Richard Kimball]

Those photos indicate an incredible ripoff of Apple. The color scheme and the silhouette logo that's lit from behind are pure Apple. The Microsoft touches are the generic bi-racial people in goofy poses in the posters at the top. In the second photo in the foreground, it looks like there's a kiddie car with a monitor attached to the front. That's also pure Microsoft, as is the pea soup green display case in that photo.

If this is the actual store that's going on line, I'd suggest they rip Apple off a little bit more. First, Apple Stores have relatively little area dedicated to stacks of boxes for people to pick up. Probably 80+ percent of their store space is for people to play with the products. Second, all the Apple products work, and they have actual working software on them AND internet access. You can goof with a photo in Photoshop and save it or whatever. It's my understanding that part of the shut down for an Apple Store is to reboot and restore the systems each night, so that if someone went in and deleted all the photos used by Photoshop or whatever, it will come back up properly the next morning.

One of the things I've noticed about practically all stores that sell Winboxes is that they don't have internet access and they don't have standard software on them. Frequently, they also have drivers screwed up, etc. If MS wants to make this ripoff of Apple work (nothing wrong with ripping off a good idea) they need to emphasize working systems that people can actually do stuff on as the centerpiece of the store.

The sales philosophy of the Apple Store is "play with this, if you've got questions ask, if you want it, here you go." MS philosophy has been quite different. "Buy this. Oh, you want the better graphics? Buy this." There's a transition going on, and MS hasn't caught up to what's happening. They might, but I don't think Balmer is the guy that will get them there.