As Microsoft had already confirmed, it’s going to open a line of retail stores later this year. Last week, Gizmodo published a set of detailed slides supposedly detailing the shopping experience Microsoft is going to implement. Today, Microsoft has confirmed those leaked plans are real (but not finalised!), while also announcing the first two store locations.
The shops will have a digital media wall which will wrap around the entire store,showing various messages and other information. There will – obviously – be lots of Surface Computing tables, a Genius Bar clone, and staging areas for Windows 7, Windows Media Center, the XBox, and Windows Mobile and netbooks.
As for the overall layout of the stores, Microsoft is very honest and open about where the drew their inspiration from: Nike, Nokia, Sony, Apple and AT&T. Of course, a retail store is a retail store, and there are only so many things you can do in a store. Aside from Microsoft products (both hardware and software), the stores will also carry products from other companies, such as brand-name computers and 3rd party software. Oh, you can have your birthday party in a Microsoft Store. I… Well.
The first Microsoft stores will open in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mission Viejo, California, Microsoft confirmed to CNet. “Over a billion people use our products every day yet we don’t always have a way to directly connect with them,” said Microsoft spokeswoman Kim Stocks, “We see the physical stores, as well as a consistent online experience, helping that.” There are plans to go global as well.
MS will get derided for copying Apple, but a move like this is long overdue.
I just hope the computers they sell won’t be loaded with crapware and will have some kind of “Certified by Microsoft” guarantee.
Er, why? Microsoft are not a hardware company. I really can not see how increasing their overheads by building brick & mortar stores will help them sell software.
Of course that assumes they intend to make money from these stores. It could simply be an effort to raise their profile and get some exposure among people who would not normally find themselves in a computer store. Having a shop-front on Main St. (Or the High St.) is a good way of doing that.
You Syllable guys should totally sneak into these Microsoft stores and sneakily put boxed copies of Syllable on the shelves and then watch how the employees handled that.
And tape it for our amusement, of course.
Exactly. They don’t even need to offer retail products for sale at their store locations, treat them more as image-boosting “Showrooms”.
It’d be nice to see their products demonstrated by knowledgeable and professional staff.
Edited 2009-07-28 23:39 UTC
Gateway and Dell tried that and failed miserably.
Most people want to be able to walk out of a store with a product.
Well, technically, they do sell hardware… plenty of peripherals (mice, keyboards, etc), as well as the Microsoft Surface, Zune, and the XBox 360…
Not sure if these will be featured in their store, however.
Gee, exactly what kind of company does Microsoft want to be? Now they want to get into retail? Good way to compete against your so called “partners” like Best Buy and all of the other brick and mortar retailers who sell your products.
Maybe they’re planning on surprising us and selling PC’s with Ubuntu. 😛
Microsoft will unveil their latest product, in association with Anaheim Electronics: MS Gundam. Gundams run on DOS, in case you didn’t know.
I saw there was was a door that had a Vista sign on it – turned out it was a restroom.
With retail stores Microsoft will be able to get direct feedback from average customers. This is something they really haven’t had outside of their various Beta Programs.
Consider if MS were to use their stores as sort of a, ‘test venue’ for new, upcoming products. Having direct feedback from users will be helpful in new product releases and their long-term viability. This could be done in various markets on a national scale.
To be honest, every person I know who owns a Zune player loves it and wouldn’t part with it. These same folks would jump at the opportunity to see future pre-production Zune players to test them in the store.
Apple was hugely successful with the initial release of the iPhone beause every Apple Store had about 20 for customers to play with prior to purchasing them.
I don’t see MS Stores selling computers & laptops (at least not outright). But I can see them as a sort of, public lab,’ environment.
MS does move slow at times and was a late-bloomer to the Internet. Now look where they are with MSN, Bing!, Hotmail, Windows Mobile and more.
We may see a repeat with their retail stores.
Consider this. Until now, only Microsoft *employees* have received the mind-controlling Borg implants. But with actual brick and mortar stores, and customers going into them… well… just imagine…
Edited 2009-07-29 01:14 UTC
This could be a way that Microsoft is evolving their business strategy. With the negative response to Vista, this may be a way of earning customer confidence.
Or … Another possibility is that Microsoft will start manfufacturing their own line of PCs & Laptops to compete with OEMs like Sony, Toshiba and the rest.
One of the reasons people don’t like Apple is they control everything and don’t allow clone mfrs. Consider Microsoft announcing their own lines of PCs & Laptops. What would something like this do to the computing market?
Everything is just a guess at this point. We’ll all find out when they start to open the stores.
Actually that is not correct. No one saw an iPhone until they were available for sale on day one.
The problem with MS having retail stores is that they are not going to retail anything. According to their outline theses stores will just be there to show everyone how great MS products are. Wanna buy something? Well you can go home and order it online or visit the nearest Best Buy, or…
It reminds me of the movie “Dave”;
“You want to spend x millions of dollars making people feel good about the cars they have already bought?”
It is a foolish move unless MS is ready to unveil a line of their own computers.
It just occurred to me a prank that anyone can do. You burn Linux (Mandriva or whatever) live CDs and you walk into a Microsoft store insert the CDs and reboot the computers that are on display. Then watch the employees go nuts.
A different operating system on every computer.
….Hmmm, a Dummy Bar perhaps?
Also…
“Oh, you can have your birthday party in a Microsoft Store.”
…makes me chuckle and then vomit.
I wonder how many times they’ll tell people that there is no problem with Windows and that the hardware drivers are the issue.
I’m not sure what they hope to achieve, especially being in the same malls as Apple but to confuse and promote FUD.
I hope that they’ll find positive aspects to sell but I feel that Microsoft will always be Microsoft.
Where you by a PC with Windows without the crap. At least you’d hope so. Every OEM I have dealt with has required a wipe of the system – repartition and reinstall of the OS – the garbage that usually gets bundled like Norton 360 or iTunes or some other garbage.
Windows can work well when left to its own and configured with some basic idea as to how to prevent simple issues from arising. Bit like setting up Linux.
Does smack of Apple though and that can’t be too good – MS users might get smug and a superiority complex about their over priced but trendy calculators.