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To: lainie
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.

71 posted on 02/14/2009 11:39:40 AM PST by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: 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.

FYI, retailers have been selling goods using rear-lighted logo signs for close to a century. And there's nothing unique to Microsoft about using goofy posters. The color scheme seems pretty generic to me.

A ripoff of Apple? Hardly.

72 posted on 02/14/2009 12:00:39 PM PST by Fresh Wind (Hey, Obama! Where's my check?)
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