Microsoft store to face off against Apple iPhone 4 launch

16791112

Comments

  • Reply 161 of 234
    ecphorizerecphorizer Posts: 533member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doug Halfen View Post


    By the same logic, "elves" would be "elfs," and that just looks ridiculous.



    Sorry, though the logic appears "logical" on the surface, the etymologies are entirely different. Better to compare "wharfs" to the argument. It has to do with the "arf" part of the word. Think of listening to a dog bark, it's using a lot of arfs. Or barf? Do we think of a lot of barves or a bunch of barfs? Oh oh, I just thought of an inconsistency - scarf & scarves.



    Oh well, back to our regular programming. This way off topic threadjacking did not happen.
  • Reply 162 of 234
    ecphorizerecphorizer Posts: 533member
    Originally Posted by SHOBIZ

    If this is such a non threat (Correct) why so many responses?





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by quinney View Post


    can't reply at length now, there's a beached whale I want to go see.



    Hey!!! I resemble that remark.
  • Reply 163 of 234
    steviestevie Posts: 956member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    Have a little sympathy for Stevie and the other Windows/PC fans who post here. Imagine how galling it must be to see the little company that you almost drove out of business rise up to become a worthy rival, and to eat your lunch in some areas. It used to be the other way around: lonely Apple fans nipping at the heels of big bad MS on forums, being roundly ridiculed. Cut them a little slack and let them vent.



    Sorry, but I am far from a Windows fan. I never almost drove any company out of business. I have had no lunch eaten.



    But thanks for the kind words.
  • Reply 164 of 234
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ecphorizer View Post


    Originally Posted by SHOBIZ

    If this is such a non threat (Correct) why so many responses?









    Hey!!! I resemble that remark.



    Sorry, no offense intended (to you). It turns out the beached whale was performance art by Steve Ballmer sunbathing and portraying Microsoft's progress.
  • Reply 165 of 234
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ecphorizer View Post


    Sorry, though the logic appears "logical" on the surface, the etymologies are entirely different. Better to compare "wharfs" to the argument. It has to do with the "arf" part of the word.



    Uh, I prefer to use "wharves." (It's "valid" for the same reason, which is why I use it. )



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ecphorizer View Post


    Think of listening to a dog bark, it's using a lot of arfs. Or barf? Do we think of a lot of barves or a bunch of barfs?



    Oh, for goodness' sake: those are "play words." And how many times do you really see anyone write those in the plural?



    Now, if you're talking verbs, then without a doubt, "arfs" and "barfs" are the ONLY way to go! (Same for "dwarfs" and "scarfs.")



    But, to be honest, I never try to think of a lot of barves/barfs in the first place.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ecphorizer View Post


    Oh oh, I just thought of an inconsistency - scarf & scarves.



    Yeah, well, we're talkin' English, so inconsistencies are part & parcel of the experience. Our language has always been a rather fine but mixed-up mutt...



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ecphorizer View Post


    Oh well, back to our regular programming. This way off topic threadjacking did not happen.



    Yes, it did -- just admit it and CONFESS!!!



    (Let's face it, this sort of stuff happens invariably anyway. At least we're not talking about little green Martians. Or are we? Maybe they're the ones really behind Microsoft's slow, laborious demise... )
  • Reply 166 of 234
    hammeroftruthhammeroftruth Posts: 1,303member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by danvid36 View Post


    I sure am glad of it. Trolling can't possibly make you much money.



    If you do it professionally you can make money. Ask Paul Thurrott and Rob Enderle. They make good money, but they both Troll and Shill.



    I hear you have to take a lot of showers when you shill, and you never do become completely clean.

  • Reply 167 of 234
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    Yeah I see it. It's pretty clear. She might have just put it in her bag in order to keep her hands free to clap while dancing, though.



    LOL



    Yeah, I'm afraid the fun's spoiled: she just put the stuff she was already holding in her hand into the bag so she could join fully in the worship at the Windoze Altar.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mark Booth View Post


    Because all Apple fans are sick and tired of how Microsoft bamboozled the masses into thinking they were innovative when, in fact, they are just a bunch of copycats that happened to have a somewhat similar product that fit cheap crap PCs.



    Because Microsoft is, once again, simply copying Apple's success and hoping that the masses won't notice that, in reality, they couldn't innovate their way out of a paper sack.



    I give it 2 more years before Microsoft shareholders are screaming for Balmer's head on a platter.



    Mark



    I pretty much hated them from the start for EXACTLY these reasons. The roots of this "war" run deep and are long-standing (at least by "Computer Age" standards).



    WHY those Microsoft shareholders aren't screaming for the Bald Monkey's head on a platter immediately is beyond my comprehension...



    I have no problem with "good competition" -- but, from my standpoint, Microsoft just freakin' sucks. I mean, really: THIS is the Great Enemy? Imagine Darth Vader wearing just a form-fitting spandex bodysuit and a black-plastic bubble for a helmet (with clear eyeholes)... Pathetic and depressing.



    (You don't even wanna know about the toilet-paper-dressed Storm Troopers...)
  • Reply 168 of 234
    There won't be such a concentration of virgins in one place until the next Star Wars convention.
  • Reply 169 of 234
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Askew View Post


    So what does the Microsoft store sell exactly?



    Dance lessons.



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAXEVXvNz8



  • Reply 170 of 234
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LongDukDong View Post


    There won't be such a concentration of virgins in one place until the next Star Wars convention.



    The virgins are the ones who stay home and enact their own mini-conventions (usually online). The attendees for the "real deal" are all-too-ready to "get their freak on."



    (The same applies to "Star Trek" conventions.)



    Dang, did you NEED to make me go there???



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTel View Post


    Dance lessons.



    Which will be GREATLY improved by the time "Service Pack 3" rolls around!
  • Reply 171 of 234
    bettiebluebettieblue Posts: 294member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zoetmb View Post


    I may take some flack for this, but in spite of their overwhelming success and popularity, I don't consider most of the Apple stores (especially the mall stores) to be all that special. So they're brightly lit, have parsons tables and lighted displays on the walls....big deal. And they charge list price for everything. Why would I buy a third-party accessory in an Apple store when I could get it for less elsewhere?



    The real benefit of Apple stores is that they have lots of working equipment with loaded software. Most other retailers actually lock you out of the machines or have no software loaded on them or don't have them connected to a network, so you can't do anything with them.



    The perceived benefit of Apple stores is seeing this really nice environment (especially the flagship stores), filled with people swarming around the Apple products. I know New York is the "city that never sleeps", but I still find it amazing that when you walk into the Fifth Avenue store at 2am, it's mobbed with people. It drives home the message that Apple must be the product you want to own because it seems like everyone else wants to own it.



    Apple needed to get into retail because before the advent of the Apple stores, most third party retail did a really lousy job of presenting Apple products. And in retrospect, especially with the closing of CompUSA and Circuit City, it was a genius move, because imagine where Apple might be today if they didn't open their own retail and didn't have these chains to rely upon, as bad as they were.



    However, having said all that, if Microsoft is perceived as copying Apple, even if Microsoft's retail endeavor has a different strategy and purpose, Microsoft's stores can do more harm than good for Microsoft. And considering how most CE retail already supports Wintel, did Microsoft really need to open retail stores?



    And is the Microsoft store going to feature Microsoft's Mac software products?



    I can't wait until people start walking into the Microsoft Store, going to their version of the Genius Bar, throwing their barely working laptop at them and screaming, "get this piece of crap working!" If Microsoft pulls a "well you have to take off all the third party software" line on people, there will be riots. And if they tell people they can fix it by wiping the hard disk and re-installing the OS, that's not going to go over too well either. It's going to be really interesting to see how this all works out. In the locations where there's both a Microsoft and an Apple store, I'd love to see research that shows how many people walk from the Microsoft store to the Apple store and vice-versa.



    One difference between Apple and Wintel is that since most offices are still primarily Wintel based, there's plenty of decent paying jobs in IT for Wintel support techs. They don't have to work in retail, which generally pays a lot less. So it will be interesting to see who the Microsoft stores are able to hire as "geniuses", especially if they start rolling out a lot more stores.



    But I have to admit, for a decent chocolate chip cookie, if there were no lines, I'd walk in there.



    For the same reason Apple stores are good at "properly" showing off Mac's loaded up so is the Microsoft stores. Bestbuy, Office Max and others dont really know what they are doing, machines, including Mac's at Bestbuy are jacked up 50% of the time. Microsoft stores really show case the stuff properly



    I have been in a few Apple stores where discruntled customers are in back, agry their "Piece of crap macbook" is not working and its their 5th visit to the store. I recently saw someone in there saying skype would not work and they would not touch it because it was a skype problem.



    I think Apple stores will do better, simply because they are basically the only place to get Mac stuff, especially computers other than the tiny section at some bestbuy stores. However Microsoft products are sold in many places, or at least computers loaded with them, are at Walmart, SAMS, Costco, Target, Sears and all electronics places like Fry's, Microcenter, Bestbuy etc.



    You can make all the fun you want, but Windows 7 out sold every copy of OS X ever in like 30 days. Even Vista the pile of steamy krap it is has done the same thing, many times over.
  • Reply 172 of 234
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Keep in mind MS store is only on west coast. iPhone 4 is us and then world wide. Not really competition there.
  • Reply 173 of 234
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    McD's DOES own Boston Market (formerly Boston Chicken) however.



    Actually they don't own Boston Market anymore. They used to have a majority share in Chipotle but also fully divested of that too.
  • Reply 174 of 234
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chronster View Post


    I know you all think this is stupid of MS (and partially rightly so) but there are things that they can do in their own store to show off features of Windows 7 that places like Best Buy simply won't do. Has anyone ever gone to Best Buy, tried out a computer, and then realized they had either set something up wrong or one of the advertised features wasn't hooked up? Intel WiDi is a perfect example.



    BTW, if one of these stores is opening at your local mall and you can somehow get both the Apple store and MS store in a single photo, go and take a picture on the iphone 4 launch day. It should be a good laugh.



    But the Macs at Apple Store work the same as the ones you take home. Having to "set something up" in order for it to work on a brand new machine seems a little odd to a Mac user. That's basically admitting that Win7 doesn't impress out of the box, it needs some fluffing.



    By the way, I have Win7 as a VM & I'll be the first to admit it's not half bad, but still not caught up with OS X on any technical level. Try running VMs on your Win laptop and putting it to sleep while some VM is in the middle of a major OS upgrade, watch the VM & Win 7 choke & burn. With OS X it sleeps almost instantly, then picks right back up when you get home & open it up again. Oh to have an OS that just works, it's priceless!!
  • Reply 175 of 234
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post


    You can make all the fun you want, but Windows 7 out sold every copy of OS X ever in like 30 days. Even Vista the pile of steamy krap it is has done the same thing, many times over.



    Well of course they have. That's what happens when you have ~90% of the installed base. You expect that all those Windows boxes are suddenly going to upgrade to Mac OS X? But of course they can't. It's really all about inertia.



    But the real movement in the field of consumer computing is hand held. Windows won the desktop OS wars years ago, and Steve was one of the first to admit it. If you want to get a sense of the future, look at iOS versus Windows Mobile sales. That's where the competition is now.



    There'll always be desktop OS for heavy lifting. But for day-to-day functionality, smart phones and tablets are the nouvelle vague. And in that arena Apple is kicking MS's butt.
  • Reply 176 of 234
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    Well of course they have. That's what happens when you have 90% of the installed base. You expect that all those Windows boxes are suddenly going to upgrade to Mac OS X?



    But the real movement in the field of consumer computing is hand held. Windows won the desktop OS wars years ago, and Steve was one of the first to admit it. If you want to get a sense of the future, look at iOS versus Windows Mobile sales. That's where the competition is now.



    There'll always be desktop OS for heavy lifting. But for day-to-day functionality, smart phones and tablets are the [i]nouvelle vague{i/]. And in that arena Apple is kicking MS's butt.



    There are so many factors at play for Win7 release. Besides the install base, you have a long time between OS upgrades, you have a failed Vista OS in mindshare. People were holding back on sales and it appeared that this also gave Apple a boost in Mac sales, but even after Win7 was released and wildly successful for MS and their OEMs Macs kept right on growing.



    Sure, Jobs said that MS won back in 1998(?) but were they really competing against Apple and did Apple really lose? For me to say anyone has to have won more than a battle that avenue of business has to due out completely but Macs are still here and more popular than ever before. They sell more in a quarter than they sold in an entire year just 4(?) years ago.



    Most striking is the differences in business models. Apple never really fought MS on equal ground, and vice-versa. There was a licensing of Mac OS for a spell but Jobs canned that quickly. Now Apple takes a reported 1/3 of the revenues from PC sales. To me, that is a victory over their direct competitors, the OEMs.



    Still, Apple will never topple MS' Windows marketshare if they continue to not license Mac OS X so I don't know how that could ever be compared. For Apple to best MS with desktop OS sales they's have to sell 50% of all the PCs in the world, per quarter. That is about 40 million(?) Mac sales each quarter and that means taking all the business directly away from Dell, HP and maybe a third vendor. It's just not possible.
  • Reply 177 of 234
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    For Apple to best MS with desktop OS sales they's have to sell 50% of all the PCs in the world, per quarter. That is about 40 million(?) Mac sales each quarter and that means taking all the business directly away from Dell, HP and maybe a third vendor. It's just not possible.



    No argument here. That's why I find the handheld area so much more interesting. It renders the "OS wars" or battles moot. Apple has outflanked the enemy--taken the competition to an entirely new arena.
  • Reply 178 of 234
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    No argument here. That's why I find the handheld area so much more interesting. It renders the "OS wars" or battles moot. Apple has outflanked the enemy--taken the competition to an entirely new arena.



    I fully expect Android to best Apple in the mobile OS marketshare. There are just too many vendors using the OS for that not to be the case. I am surprised that it hasn't happened already which is a testament to just how popular the iPhone is. Same goes for the Blackberry. Both Apple and RiM are well managed companies, but I fear that RiM will not outsell the iPhone in a quarter for the foreseeable future. When it comes to profit I don't see anyone coming close to Apple on that front.





    PS: While we're talking about Windows. There is no better OS for a large enterprise environment. It's great to imagine an entire office with Macs, but without Apple letting OEMs fight it out to get contracts with their HW it'll never be a viable market for Apple. I had hoped they would buy Sun and use a revamped 'corporate" version of Mac OS X designed for the Sun Workstation that was independent of Macs and later push that out to the corporate world with licensed copies for the major OEMs. Oh well, maybe next decade.
  • Reply 179 of 234
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I fully expect Android to best Apple in the mobile OS marketshare. There are just too many vendors using the OS for that not to be the case. I am surprised that it hasn't happened already which is a testament to just how popular the iPhone is. Same goes for the Blackberry. Both Apple and RiM are well managed companies, but I fear that RiM will not outsell the iPhone in a quarter for the foreseeable future. When it comes to profit I don't see anyone coming close to Apple on that front.





    PS: While we're talking about Windows. There is no better OS for a large enterprise environment. It's great to imagine an entire office with Macs, but without Apple letting OEMs fight it out to get contracts with their HW it'll never be a viable market for Apple. I had hoped they would buy Sun and use a revamped 'corporate" version of Mac OS X designed for the Sun Workstation that was independent of Macs and later push that out to the corporate world with licensed copies for the major OEMs. Oh well, maybe next decade.



    You are probably right. But just as Windows having outsold Apple didn't run Apple out of business, Android may find itself in a similar situation. Commoditizing the handheld OS for those for whom good enough is good enough. Yet, not being able to capture that last share of the market where consumers value quality and innovation. On the other hand, Google has some scary-good product out there (other than Android), not unlike Apple in some ways. It's going to be fun to watch the two of these powerful forces going at each other.
  • Reply 180 of 234
    iansilviansilv Posts: 283member
    These idiots opened four stores in the same mall?
Sign In or Register to comment.