Microsoft confirms retail stores coming this fall
By Laura June 
posted July 15th 2009 5:01PM
posted July 15th 2009 5:01PM
posted July 15th 2009 5:01PM
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Bookmark your comment & come back to it at that time. I have a feeling you are right on the money!
Dell & Gateway had presence all over the place at one time and it was fun when people took snapshots of BSODs.
Great, now with a guy from Wal-Mart running this thing, I'm sure to walk into one of these stores with a bunch of latinos running around and a bunch of crap on the floor. Exactly the reason I chose Apple.
Just what we needed, another PC World..
LOLCANO
Well... maybe some of us who were laid off at Microsoft could get jobs at the retail stores... think they'll hire former devs, testers, and IT personnel to sell their stuff... for slightly over minimum wage? Might as well, no one else is hiring...
I'm not sure why Microsoft needs a Microsoft centric shop.....most computer shops are pretty damn MS Centric to begin with. I can't really consider Linux or Apple to be serious competition since they take so little of the personal computer OS market. The general population does not want to learn another OS other than XP and that goes for Vista and probably W7. Will these shops be selling Microsoft products only? Microsoft built hardware? Packaged Microsoft Virus protection? Or will it be just like a Best Buy with Norton, HP, Dell, Sony....etc products? Will there be a Microsoft tampon dispenser in the women's restroom? I'm pretty sure the Mac store has iPads and iPons in their restrooms. (careful: they overheat and explode) Guys whatever you do, never use the Microsoft condoms unless you purchase extra virus protection.
Wow. Microsoft even copied the LOOK of Apple store employees? Jesus...what happened to originali- oh wait its Microsoft, never mind. I love how Microsoft doesn't even try to hide how badly they want to be Apple, they just so openly imitate and follow Apples every footstep. In the past 20 years, nothing has changed at all.
*Waits for the anti-Mac Engadget fanboys* Flame away!
Who's the chick? She's hot!
YES.
NATAL NATAL NATAL
this is the key to bring more buzz than the boring apple stores
have a demonstation room set up in-store with the following (all connected and synchin with each other)
pc
natal
xbox 360
zune
both pc and xbox to use natal to operate... it will be like minority report lol
apple cant do nothing against that imo... throw in a surface station for good measure
throw in a windows mobile 7 phone in the mix too
WE LOVE U BILL !
Apple can do something against that. It's called Apple Computer.
They are hiring a former Wal-Mart CEO? Oh wow Microsoft... that's really high class.
If she comes with every store then Microsoft will be king again.
They going to have girls like that in their stores? THAT would make me go. Heh.
Can't MS ever have an original idea?
Sorry, sort of off topic but because it was mentioned earlier in the posts in made me think that this would be, like, the greatest idea ever:
12" action figures of all the geeks of Silicon Valley. Each with Kung Fu grip and special 'powers'.
Steve Ballmer, special power = Lions Roar (but it actually sounds more like a hyena)
Steve Jobs, special power = Death Grip (a ghostly version of his turtleneck appears around your neck and chokes you)
Bill Gates, special power = Lasers (he shoots lasers from his trademark glasses from the 80's and 90's)
Sergey Brin, special power = Super Frisk (he can search you, including every orifice of your body, in 30 milliseconds)
Larry Ellison, special power = Womanizer (oh wait, that's his talent in real life)
Michael Dell, special power = Sleep Force (he can bore you to sleep with his products in 10 seconds or less)
What do you guys think? How cool would these action figures be? And what other tech icons should get made into action figures and what would their powers be?
Haha. Sorry for the side topic. Now, back to your regularly scheduled MS vs. Apple flame war.
I can't wait for the photos of bustling, overflowing apple stores right next to near-empty Microsoft stores with employees in business wear hanging out with nothing to do.
In all seriousness though, the fact that Microsoft is now consistently marketing and defining itself AGAINST Apple, a brand whose coolness they are never going to dissuade people of, displays both an enormous lack of confidence in their products ability to speak for themselves, and a terrible choice on behalf of their marketing division. Essentially their entire ad programs of late have been "anti-apple talking points".
Zune sucks, windows 7 isn't that great, windows mobile is a joke, enough said.
Anything that makes Apple lower their prices should be welcome by fans of Apple products. Give 'em hell, Microsloth!
The I'm a PC shirt is for someone who tried to find the (cr)Applestore but even he is so stupid that he thinks Mac is spelled PC.
This is a sure sign that Micro$oft is about to go belly up... *COUGH...Gateway....*COUGH
I don't really understand this. There's already hundreds of stores selling PCs and MS products, why do we need another? I just can't see this idea working as well as the Apple stores considering the sales pitch for each, you know? Mac tends to aim for the individualistic approach where buying a single machine is kind of like picking out a pet, whereas a PC is more of a business oriented "tool." Look at the biggest purchasers of PCs on top of it; major business. I don't think a big-time CEO is going to stroll down to his local MS store and pick up 8,000 workstations... Most of you probably think I'm a biased Apple snob-treehugger at this point, but I hate to inform you that I have both a Lenovo T400 (2.53Ghz 256 ATi switchable graphics 4GB RAM) for work in IT and a Macbook Pro (2.26Ghz 13.3" 2GB RAM) for personal use (bootcamp with Leopard and Win7 beta) and I mean, if they tell you exactly what each is good for, it may work. I just can't see that particular medium working better than a major retailer's website like Dell or Lenovo which to me is like the fast food of the computer market; made to order, comes quick for cheap and it's a decent product. Both companies just need to learn where their place is in the world and frankly, I think Apple has a MUCH better grasp of that at this point. Bill seems like he's stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out how to get back a relatively small part of the personal computer market. We'll just have to see.