As you likely know, Microsoft plans to open retails stores sometime in the fall (U.S. seasons). But a 140-page slide presentation — featuring a sneak peek at the stores — has been leaked onto Gizmodo.com. Hmmm. Here are some of early perspectives.
Gizmodo nicely summarizes Microsoft’s retail store strategy in two sentences:
Essentially, Microsoft is taking the best elements from the Apple Store, Sony Style and other “flagship” stores. The main focuses are going to be Windows 7, Xbox, PCTV (Windows Media Center) Surface and Windows Mobile, revolving around this concept customer they call “Emily,” who’s basically a younger version of your mom, since they make all the buying decisions.
The VAR Guy must concede: He’s a huge fan of the Apple Store concept and the Apple Store Genius Bars. Those bars have answered urgent questions and addressed key technical issues time and time again for our resident blogger. Microsoft will counter with The Answers Bar or Guru Bar or Windows Bar, according to Gizmodo.
Translation: Looks like Microsoft has its Thesaurus out, looking for “Genius” synonyms…
Don’t Dismiss Microsoft
Still, let’s keep an open mind, folks.
Some skeptics have completely dismissed Microsoft’s forthcoming stores before they even open. But The VAR Guy is keeping an open mind. One of Microsoft’s biggest challenges is complexity: The company simply has too many business and consumer products for novices to track. The retail stores could help customers — and Microsoft itself — to more easily spot what’s next in consumer and corporate IT.
Oh, and kudos to Gizmodo for such a comprehensive report/look at Microsoft’s retail store strategy. Hats off from The VAR Guy.
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The big problem is that nobody buys “Windows”, it’s just something people get with a new machine. As for Office, yes, maybe, except that a lot of people seem to find a way to get it with the cheap “academic discount”, even if they have nothing to do with academia.
So what has Microsoft got left to sell in its stores? Really just other people’s hardware.
Lawrence: Fair points. But in this case The VAR Guy thinks people will “buy” Windows 7 when they see it preinstalled on new PCs in Microsoft retail stores.
The bigger question: How will Microsoft pick and choose which hardware to display in its own stores??? No doubt, a few PC vendors will feel alienated if they don’t gain access to eyeballs within Microsoft’s stores.
They should have done this a long time ago. One thing I’ll give apple is the genius bar. You have a problem you take your Mac in and they attempt to fix it. If you can deal with the smug attitudes and hipster dress of the store associates, it’s a good idea.
Having the option of going in and using Win7 on a computer like you can in the Apple store is also cool. Plus you can sell some third party apps that aren’t available in the Mac stores.
My question, what hardware will they display in the store?
@ Optix
Yeah, that will work out just great. Can’t wait to see what happens when people start walking in with their computers of every (minus one) single brand on this planet, with a number of different versions of windows on them, demanding that they fixed immediately. This will work miracles for MS’ public perception… Or not.
It’s kinda funny, their last etempt at copying and killing competition that didn’t fail or just blow in their faces was IE in the nineties (that is if you ignore what has been happening for the last five years), and yet, they try again and again with the persistance of a maniac. They failed with [insert Microsoft search engine name here], they failed with the Zune, they financially failed with Xbox, they failed with Windows Media DRM, they failed with Vista (I mean it’s what? 20? 20-something percent of the market TWO YEARS AFTER RELEASE? Compare that to previous releases). There is a reason for that- they can’t compete. They never could. All they ever had was due to massive deals with corporations, public sector and OEMs. They have customers, but not consumers. Everywhere where there is actual competition they either fail, or struggle to stay in the game on life support from windows+office earnings. They have basically nothing to offer to their consumers (you know, actually something that would make a lot of consumers go out of their way to go to a MS retail and buy it), and retail is all about the consumers.
They’ll open, they’ll get some pundit hype, they’ll get a lot of astroturf hype, they’ll fail and close down as quietly as possible.
Aaaaaawkward. This is only going to legitimize Apple’s brand even more. It’s the equivalent of McDonald’s changing their slogan to “Almost as tasty as Taco Bell”
I’m really curious to see how this plays out.
Yeah, I forgot about the Genius Bar. Actually, it would be pretty simple:
“Reinstall. NEXT!”
“Reinstall. NEXT!”
…
Lawrence: Somewhere, The VAR Guy is laughing…
Hello,
We are very Microsoft centric (gold partner) but I think that Apple & Apple store has a lot of neat ideas and solid products.
Actually we are revamping our small retail space and plan to incorporate some of them and now I want to review the Microsoft store ideas too.
On the “reinstall” problem: first I think this is a big issue and does need to have a solution. The one solution is the one taken by Apple: limit the software and hardware tremendeously. But the hasn’t the market shown the more “open” approach of Microsoft has won out?
At our store and consultancy we use a hybrid approach in that we have a recommended set of hardware and software that we can guru level support but we will support a wider array with the understanding it will be time and materials.
matt
http://dynamicssmallbusiness.blogspot.com/
Matt: The VAR Guy appreciates perspective from a Microsoft Gold Partner like you.
Our resident blogger wonders… will the Microsoft Stores carry “preferred” hardware solutions? And if so, who will test/certify those solutions? Seems like the Windows market could use some more quality control. But that could backfire and upset some hardware makers…
Either way, The VAR Guy looks forward to visiting MSFT stores to see how they perform.
Update: First Microsoft stores will open in Arizona and California, according to Seattle.pi.