[N3WBI3]

Maybe I can clarify his question for you..

Microsoft does not sell computers they sell software. The apple store and its support works because they sell you the hardware, on top of that they control all the hardware.

MS will have to support any old configuration that comes in off the street unless they want to get into saying that 99% of the people who want to come in for support cant get it because of a third party nic.

Can MS make this work? sure but their strong point is *not* customer support nor any kind of universal hardware set. This is a potentially a bad idea because its MS trying to force their round peg of a business model (albeit a successful round peg) into a square hole of a market.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, and here's where it gets sticky for MS. A ton of the MS software is OEM, which means "absolutely no MS support, nothing, nada, zilch." You get software updates and can search their support database, but they will not talk to you on the phone if something goes wrong on day one or day ten. Soooooooo you can buy a $250 Microsoft ticket and they'll talk to you on the phone, but won't guarantee they'll solve the problem. What happens when a guy walks into the store with one of those issues? I don't think most users know that when they buy a computer with Windows supplied that it doesn't include any MS support (disclaimer: I left Windows with ME and this info may be dated.

Also, there's got to be hardware in the store. A store with only software in boxes will simply not cut it. If they sell the el cheapo boxes in the stores, they'll have problems. If they sell the premium boxes, they'll cost as much as Macs. Will people pay that much? Also, what happens to all the MS "partners" who get left out in the cold? Well, MS has dumped people before. Remember "Plays for sure?" A lot of hardware vendors ended up sucking air when MS dumped that after a couple of years. The thing is, though, MS hasn't ever dumped on all their hardware partners in this fashion before.

I'm hearing good buzz about the next MS OS, but the last real programming done there was probably NT. Since Gates retired, the company has also seemed rudderless, going from one fiasco to another. I'll be surprised if Zune recovers, as it's become a punch line. XBox has been successful, but IIRC, MS sold the boxes at a significant loss. I don't know if that's still true. BTW, I've still never seen a Zune in the wild, and I work on a college campus. There are lots of iPhones, though.