MS's unselfconscious duplication of Apple's successful formula makes them seem . . . I don't know, just silly. They may be copying the form, but not the function of an Apple Store. The one being divorced from the other makes them superfluous. The whole effect is a bit like a kid dressed up in his parent's clothes.
What you have just described is the KIRF mentality. No competitor understands why the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and now, iPad is so successful, so they copy the visible things they can grasp and expect to get the same result. MS KIRFed the Apple store without considering that the Apple Mac and iOS experience is what people find so attractive, not just the tables. Many more manufacturers will copy the specs of the new iPhone, and as much of the design as they can get away with, yet, they will not have reproduced an iPhone. They will never understand that.
You can copy the layout of a Ferrari dealership, but if the showroom is full of broken down Chevy's you shouldn't be surprised when people point and laugh instead of pulling out their wallets.
I still remember the grand opening of the first Apple store at Tyson's Corner Mall just outside of Washington DC back in 2001. I hadn't planned on going that day but my wife and I ended up at the mall anyway and there was a line of 300 people waiting to get into the store...at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In those days, Apple was just selling Macs and the iPod was brand new.
It's amazing for a company that still has 93% PC marketshare can't get its userbase excited about anything.
MS did open retail stores long before Apple was successful. Yes, they did close them and now they are re-entering but come on - a retail store is nothing that Apple invented! Childish
At leasts these stores from Microsoft do have a very cool 360° video installation
I still remember the grand opening of the first Apple store at Tyson's Corner Mall just outside of Washington DC back in 2001. I hadn't planned on going that day but my wife and I ended up at the mall anyway and there was a line of 300 people waiting to get into the store...at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In those days, Apple was just selling Macs and the iPod was brand new.
It's amazing for a company that still has 93% PC marketshare can't get its userbase excited about anything.
Well, in all fairness, you can use either spelling -- I personally prefer the "-ves" (like "leaves" or "wolves") because the "v" gives a bit more grit than the "f" sound -- which is kinda necessary when spitting out the following "s."
I'll go with J.R.R. Tolkien. Dwarfs
Quote:
Originally Posted by justbobf
>>> The first was opened 20 minutes away from an Apple Store in Scottsdale Arizona
Hummm... I don't think a 20 minute drive can be considered close. That's farther than from the beach to downtown L.A.
Maybe at 2 am. That 5 miles can take hours a lot of the time.
yes or at least learn how to copy well for once, because they suck at that too
Thats your opinion. I think that their store design looks much better and they show more than just 5 products. I guess that playing around with the Surface tables and the Xboxes is interesting for people.
no kidding! i spent half a day with a friends laptop (using parallels) trying to download a windows xp (that she purchased a week ago). it crashed, then i got stuck in a loop with windows launching, but then not being able to find a 'winserv' driver.
i spent an additional 4 hours just trying to reinstall the operating system?to no avail.
i finally just removed everything and gave her back her laptop. she had a friend who was going to help her out with a tower he was giving her. she wrote back that she was going to install windows xp and an anti-virus software. i asked if it was going on the macbook pro. here is her response:
"it's not going on to the laptop, no way, no how.
After way too many hours we got Windows installed but we need to get on line to get the service pak. I hate Windows..."
this is a major reason why i love the mac so much. why is windows so so f'cking difficult?
Yeah, I live a couple miles away from this mall and I see that Microsoft store just sitting there lurking in the shadows of the apple store x] but Idk, I have no problem with them except for their Phone OS and their Vista/W7. I just don't understand the point, Best Buy is pretty much a Microsoft store already. Anything that this store could possibly sell is already at Best Buy. But who knows, maybe they will boost sales. (Doubt it)
Give Microsoft credit for one thing - the store concept is so alien to their core business, direct customers and products that at least they haven't squandered zigabucks of their shareholders' money in a huge rollout. There's a reason for only four stores all this time after the original rollout. They don't understand how stores help them and all they can do is offer technical support for everybody else's hardware using their software. The way it's set up, it's not really a store; it's a display room and a consultancy rolled up into one. But who are the patrons? I don't think Microsoft really knows.
I've seen at least two huge businesses run into similar brick walls when they tried to open new store concepts. Remember Gateway, now practically disappeared from the computer scene? Once a promising direct sales competitor to Dell, they tried to goose their business with a huge and costly retail store expansion. For six years they squandered huge sums on locations that essentially sold only their own PC models, ultimately failing against the big box electronics category killers like Best Buy that offered much wider choices of brands and models. If Gateway was looking at Ford, Toyota and Cadillac to emulate, they were looking at the wrong product/marketing concept. They should have been warned off by the single-line TV retail stores of Muntz and Curtis Mathes.
Apple Stores succeeded by deliberate differentiation - by pushing an alternative computer concept that was superior in many ways to the IBM-Microsoft PC clones, and by inventing a wholly new portable music business with the iPod. The Apple Stores supported sales by offering customers experiences and information that they weren't getting about Apple products from the big box stores.
Many have forgotten the ill-fated foray of McDonald's into roast chicken dinners. First they tried to emulate the success of Boston Market (originally Boston Chicken) with a home-grown competitor. I know, because they opened up ONE retail test-bed store in my town, approximately 10 miles away from Mickey D world headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. They fooled around with the concept for a year or so before folding it. I was there one night when a table of young eager beavers sat at a corner table and rather vocally criticized how the operation was running. It soon became obvious that they were a young executive crew from Boston Chicken out on a scouting trip.
A few years later, in 2000, McDonald's ended up buying Boston Market, not having learned anything from its earlier experience. Seven years of sideways results finally convinced the hamburger guys that they should stick to their core competency, so once again BM was set out on its own.
The lessons? In corporate strategy, imitation is seldom the sincerest form of flattery. It's more likely the sincerest indicator of corporate shortsightedness, lack of imagination and irrational desperation at the top. Microsoft folks have probably learned enough already. If their retail stores make it another year, I'll be surprised.
Does anyone actually have any sales data to backup the stance that the MS stores aren't making money? If everyone is just assuming this fact we might find out later on that they're doing well.
I have been wondering the same thing since Microsoft took another stab at brick and mortar retail.
My gut tells me that, while these locations are not losing money, they are not very lucrative either and the reason is this. If Microsoft was making money, they would have a strong incentive to publish "some" information to that effect. Any positive data would help to drive up the stock value.
If Microsoft were losing money, they would be absolutely silent about the venture until they quietly killed it.
That fact that we've heard very little, but they're still opening stores tells me that they are right in the middle.
They all copy from each other. Some more than others, but hopefully you don't believe that Apple always creates things first. I would say it's fact that Apple takes existing technology and just implements it better. They still copy the initial idea from somewhere.
It was Feb 09 when it was announced that MS would open a couple of retail stores that would be similar to the Apple Stores.
It's now June 10 and they're finally opening their 4th outlet? How many stores around the world did Apple open in their first year and some months? Looks like a winning strategy for MS.
Looks like the next location will be the old Computer Plus digs in the strip mall on Mary & Fremont in Sunnyvale (Hi Dick & Mark & Lucy!)
@CIM 310: That picture is worth a thousand words! Priceless.
I am surprised they already have those many!
Still remember the rumours about their soon-to-be, vapourware copycat store no. 1. Never heard again until today... Guess that talks volumes about the fuzz they created...
Comments
MS's unselfconscious duplication of Apple's successful formula makes them seem . . . I don't know, just silly. They may be copying the form, but not the function of an Apple Store. The one being divorced from the other makes them superfluous. The whole effect is a bit like a kid dressed up in his parent's clothes.
What you have just described is the KIRF mentality. No competitor understands why the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and now, iPad is so successful, so they copy the visible things they can grasp and expect to get the same result. MS KIRFed the Apple store without considering that the Apple Mac and iOS experience is what people find so attractive, not just the tables. Many more manufacturers will copy the specs of the new iPhone, and as much of the design as they can get away with, yet, they will not have reproduced an iPhone. They will never understand that.
It's amazing for a company that still has 93% PC marketshare can't get its userbase excited about anything.
MS is totally shameless. Apple should sue them.
MS did open retail stores long before Apple was successful. Yes, they did close them and now they are re-entering but come on - a retail store is nothing that Apple invented! Childish
At leasts these stores from Microsoft do have a very cool 360° video installation
Does anyone really care?
No, but I know what time it is.
I still remember the grand opening of the first Apple store at Tyson's Corner Mall just outside of Washington DC back in 2001. I hadn't planned on going that day but my wife and I ended up at the mall anyway and there was a line of 300 people waiting to get into the store...at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In those days, Apple was just selling Macs and the iPod was brand new.
It's amazing for a company that still has 93% PC marketshare can't get its userbase excited about anything.
Why should they? They sell 7 copies of Windows 7 every second. It's the best selling OS in history (http://www.ithinkdiff.com/7-copies-o...-second-77772/)
Oh and they had a huge crowd at the opening of their first store. (http://www.destructoid.com/inside-mi...e-152794.phtml)
But this doesn't really matter, IMO.
Well, in all fairness, you can use either spelling -- I personally prefer the "-ves" (like "leaves" or "wolves") because the "v" gives a bit more grit than the "f" sound -- which is kinda necessary when spitting out the following "s."
I'll go with J.R.R. Tolkien. Dwarfs
>>> The first was opened 20 minutes away from an Apple Store in Scottsdale Arizona
Hummm... I don't think a 20 minute drive can be considered close. That's farther than from the beach to downtown L.A.
Maybe at 2 am. That 5 miles can take hours a lot of the time.
Why should they? They sell 7 copies of Windows 7 every second. It's the best selling OS in history (http://www.ithinkdiff.com/7-copies-o...-second-77772/)
You'd think that with that kind of money they could do better than simply copying Apple.
You'd think that with that kind of money they could do better than simply copying Apple.
yes or at least learn how to copy well for once, because they suck at that too
yes or at least learn how to copy well for once, because they suck at that too
Thats your opinion. I think that their store design looks much better and they show more than just 5 products.
Pain and misery.
no kidding! i spent half a day with a friends laptop (using parallels) trying to download a windows xp (that she purchased a week ago). it crashed, then i got stuck in a loop with windows launching, but then not being able to find a 'winserv' driver.
i spent an additional 4 hours just trying to reinstall the operating system?to no avail.
i finally just removed everything and gave her back her laptop. she had a friend who was going to help her out with a tower he was giving her. she wrote back that she was going to install windows xp and an anti-virus software. i asked if it was going on the macbook pro. here is her response:
"it's not going on to the laptop, no way, no how.
After way too many hours we got Windows installed but we need to get on line to get the service pak. I hate Windows..."
this is a major reason why i love the mac so much. why is windows so so f'cking difficult?
I've seen at least two huge businesses run into similar brick walls when they tried to open new store concepts. Remember Gateway, now practically disappeared from the computer scene? Once a promising direct sales competitor to Dell, they tried to goose their business with a huge and costly retail store expansion. For six years they squandered huge sums on locations that essentially sold only their own PC models, ultimately failing against the big box electronics category killers like Best Buy that offered much wider choices of brands and models. If Gateway was looking at Ford, Toyota and Cadillac to emulate, they were looking at the wrong product/marketing concept. They should have been warned off by the single-line TV retail stores of Muntz and Curtis Mathes.
Apple Stores succeeded by deliberate differentiation - by pushing an alternative computer concept that was superior in many ways to the IBM-Microsoft PC clones, and by inventing a wholly new portable music business with the iPod. The Apple Stores supported sales by offering customers experiences and information that they weren't getting about Apple products from the big box stores.
Many have forgotten the ill-fated foray of McDonald's into roast chicken dinners. First they tried to emulate the success of Boston Market (originally Boston Chicken) with a home-grown competitor. I know, because they opened up ONE retail test-bed store in my town, approximately 10 miles away from Mickey D world headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. They fooled around with the concept for a year or so before folding it. I was there one night when a table of young eager beavers sat at a corner table and rather vocally criticized how the operation was running. It soon became obvious that they were a young executive crew from Boston Chicken out on a scouting trip.
A few years later, in 2000, McDonald's ended up buying Boston Market, not having learned anything from its earlier experience. Seven years of sideways results finally convinced the hamburger guys that they should stick to their core competency, so once again BM was set out on its own.
The lessons? In corporate strategy, imitation is seldom the sincerest form of flattery. It's more likely the sincerest indicator of corporate shortsightedness, lack of imagination and irrational desperation at the top. Microsoft folks have probably learned enough already. If their retail stores make it another year, I'll be surprised.
Does anyone actually have any sales data to backup the stance that the MS stores aren't making money? If everyone is just assuming this fact we might find out later on that they're doing well.
I have been wondering the same thing since Microsoft took another stab at brick and mortar retail.
My gut tells me that, while these locations are not losing money, they are not very lucrative either and the reason is this. If Microsoft was making money, they would have a strong incentive to publish "some" information to that effect. Any positive data would help to drive up the stock value.
If Microsoft were losing money, they would be absolutely silent about the venture until they quietly killed it.
That fact that we've heard very little, but they're still opening stores tells me that they are right in the middle.
They all copy from each other. Some more than others, but hopefully you don't believe that Apple always creates things first. I would say it's fact that Apple takes existing technology and just implements it better. They still copy the initial idea from somewhere.
That by definition is not copying.
Pain and misery.
LOL precisely!
If this is such a non threat (Correct) why so many responses?
Because people like to laugh?
It was Feb 09 when it was announced that MS would open a couple of retail stores that would be similar to the Apple Stores.
It's now June 10 and they're finally opening their 4th outlet? How many stores around the world did Apple open in their first year and some months? Looks like a winning strategy for MS.
Looks like the next location will be the old Computer Plus digs in the strip mall on Mary & Fremont in Sunnyvale (Hi Dick & Mark & Lucy!)
@CIM 310: That picture is worth a thousand words! Priceless.
I am surprised they already have those many!
Still remember the rumours about their soon-to-be, vapourware copycat store no. 1. Never heard again until today... Guess that talks volumes about the fuzz they created...