Corresponding with today's launch of Windows 7, Microsoft opened the first of its new retail stores today in Scottsdale, Arizona. Reports that Microsoft has drawn heavily on Apple's retail store concepts appear to be accurate, with the store featuring wood floors and tables, a relatively sparse layout designed to accommodate large crowds, and an "Answer Bar" to provide support for Windows users.
(WTS: One Original Idea. Free or best offer.)
The Following User Says Thank You to FanIn80 For This Useful Post:
no kidding. Look at all of the grocery stores we have. They are all essentially the same.
Restaurants, both fast and dine-in are essentially the same.
For every type of store out there, there is one exactly like it. It is called competition.
A lot of ugly people in that video. The only thing to get upset about, though, is the poor execution. That fat lady greeter at the beginning of the video totally reinforces the stereotype of the Microsoft brand.
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apple users are the elitist snobs of the computing world, the nose in the air reaction to this shocks me ... not.
Interesting.
You might want to check that attitude next month, considering how badly your company is PRAYING that those same Apple users come flocking to your doors to get the iPhone. Mind you, knowing Telus and their ######ed company practices, I can easily imagine that "elitist snobs" is exactly how iPhone customers are going to be treated there.
Anyway. None of this has anything to do with the point of this thread. The grocery store analogy is also incorrect. Apple Retail Stores are so far away from the normal retail store model, that Microsoft copying their entire layout and all of their concepts is not even close to just being another grocery store with the same cans of peas as everyone else.
I have no problems with Microsoft wanting to open retail stores. I think it's an awesome idea. I just think it's incredibly lame and obnoxiously blatant that they would literally clone Apple Stores to do it.
Just when I thought they might be starting to turn the corner with the release of Windows 7...
Edit: Oh God. I can just picture Steve Balmer jumping around in the back room while this video is being filmed. Sweating his ass off and high-fiving himself. Yikes.
Top 10 ways The Microsoft Store will differ from Apple's:
1) Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.
2) The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.
3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.
4) The Windows Genuine Advantage team will run storefront security, assuming everybody is a thief until they can prove otherwise.
5) Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).
6) Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.
7) Fashioned after Microsoft's User Account Control (UAC) in Vista, sales personnel will ask you whether you're positive you want to purchase something at least twice.
8) Xbox 360 section of the store will be organized in a ring -- which will inexplicably go red occasionally.
9) DreamWorks will design a scary in-store theme park ride called "blue screen of death."
10) Store emergency exits will be unlocked at all times so people can get in anytime they want even if the front doors are locked.
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Top 10 ways The Microsoft Store will differ from Apple's:
1) Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.
2) The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.
3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.
4) The Windows Genuine Advantage team will run storefront security, assuming everybody is a thief until they can prove otherwise.
5) Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).
6) Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.
7) Fashioned after Microsoft's User Account Control (UAC) in Vista, sales personnel will ask you whether you're positive you want to purchase something at least twice.
8) Xbox 360 section of the store will be organized in a ring -- which will inexplicably go red occasionally.
9) DreamWorks will design a scary in-store theme park ride called "blue screen of death."
10) Store emergency exits will be unlocked at all times so people can get in anytime they want even if the front doors are locked.
If you actually wrote this then well freaking done!
The grocery store analogy is also incorrect. Apple Retail Stores are so far away from the normal retail store model, that Microsoft copying their entire layout and all of their concepts is not even close to just being another grocery store with the same cans of peas as everyone else.
Now I don't know the whole history behind grocery stores, but I do know that there was a time where you had to go to X store to get your bread, Y store for your meats and so on. Then came along a grocery store that you could buy everything you needed at. I'm sure that the first grocery store was "so far away from the normal [...] store model".
I'm not a "fanboy" of either MS or Apple. I own a iphone because I feel they are the best phone out there that suites my needs. I own a laptop PC because I feel that it is the best out there that suites my needs. I own a Xbox360 because I feel it is the best console gaming system out there.
Only buying products from one brand and not the competition when they make a superior product is the stupidest thing ever (unless you happen to work for the company, or have some kind of stake in the company).
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I have a Mac, but I hate the apple store to be honest. They seem confused when you want to buy something, as only the people with a certain colour shirt are capable of completing a transaction.
What. The. ****.
