“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.
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.
Here is the problem with this idea (that I see). I don’t like the apple store because it sells Apples, I like the apple store because of the genius bar and those work because the hardware platform is uniform.
Selling in direct competition against their own retailers... such as Walmart, Frys, Circuit City (well, not), Radio Shack, Game Stop, and every Mom and Pop computer store in the country. Sounds like a really good business plan to alienate your business partners.
Have demonstrations of stuff from their R&D department like Surface, Photosynth, World Wide Telescope.
Ok, but then you create demand for products that may never see the light of day.
Apple opened the Apple Stores to retail their own products because the retailers were doing a poor job of it. In spot checks, Apple found that display Macs were disconnected, complete turned off, or had been sabotaged with all applications disabled in over 50% of the stores. Sales people in third party stores were found to be deliberately re-directing potential Apple customers to Windows PCs based on false or completely outdated information, FUD, and/or telling them they were "Toy" computers. The sales people, unfamiliar with Macs, would almost always steer customers to the platform they were familiar with... Windows PCs.
Apple decided they needed to sell their own stuff directly to the public. It has worked remarkably well. Apple Stores produce more revenue per square foot than any other retail operation in the World, including out producing by FOUR TIMES the previous number one retailer, Tiffany's Jewelry Store.
Apple did have some problems with Apple resellers complaints and lawsuits about Apple Store competition in the same town. Most of these independents did not survive the competition.
Windoze Mobile is a dying platform for smartphones.
On the other hand, a lot of additional devices with the new Android open-source (Linux based) OS, which debuted in 2008, are coming out in 2009 (but somehow I don’t think they will selling any of those in M-soft stores)