jason

AppleInsider | Microsoft to open new retail stores like Apple

Analysts expected Apple to fail when it announced plans to begin opening stores back in 2001…. Ten years later, Apple’s 251 retail stores, 41 of which are outside the US, employ nearly 16,000 employees and contribute more than a quarter of the company’s profits. The iconic stores give Apple a public face and serve as training centers as well as sales outlets. At the release of the iPhone, Apple’s retail store locations helped to whip up a media frenzy with enthusiastic buyers camping out in long lines…

Microsoft has operated at least one retail store in the past, an 8,500 square foot development at the Metreon in San Francisco called “microsoftSF,” launched during the dot com boom in 1999. In addition to rows of software boxes and demonstrations of Microsoft’s ill fated WebTV Network, the store also displayed art installations, such as one involving Microsoft Mice decorated by various people, and sold microsoftSF merchandise..;. The location closed two and half years later and is now a Sony Playstation store.

Poor M$, when have they not been derivative. Is there anything they can do for themselves and make a success out of it? Even if this doesn’t flop, it will be just another “Ya, me too!” marketing gesture by the bully on the block.