Agreed! MS should open a chain of "family burger restaurants" all along the Interstate Highways, call 'em "Ballmer's Big Boy"… It would feature a caricature of Ballmer as a statue in front of every restaurant… They'd serve a massive stacked burger (called The Big B's Big Boy), offer an old style "drive in" option complete with roller skating Car Hops who can ALSO do a quick "Office Genius" consultation while you gulp down a shake and fries with that...
Burgers and a Shake with Fries and a Technical Consultation? It goes together like flowers and sunshine, like honey and bees, like… Nerds and Glasses!
Surely it couldn't be any worse than the real ideas in play…. could it?
I wish MS tons of success with this. I'd love to see them give Apple some competition.
But so far, MS has only scratched the surface of having their own hard products to sell. Let's see ... there's soft stuff, Windows and it's many flavors (including Home Server); Office (I wonder if they sell Office for Mac in those stores??); and ... uh ... yeah, the hard Surface thing.
Another problem: Can the Microsoft Wise Guys (well, you can't really call them Geniuses, can you?) really help you find the right machine for you? Good luck.
I'm hoping that Dell is going to get with the program at some point, but so far they're pretty disappointing. Not that I'd personally buy a Dell, but Dell is better positioned to do retail than Microsoft, and it could (maybe, might) be some measure of competition added to the market mix.
Oh, yeah, forgot the XBox--they got that right.
Dell tried retail back in 2006. They didn't make any money at it and had to shut down their retail in 2008.
You can't change the past, my friend. Microsoft cared very little about such things, and if Apple had 1.2 billion on hand, $150 million wouldn't have been touted as what saved Apple. Microsoft's investment was focused on expanding to a platform to run their software on. Do you not remember the investment also came with Office, Internet Explorer, and other MS products to the Macintosh?
So Apple, a company that will go after anyone and anything in court to edge out more profits for themselves, decided to FOREGO an opportunity for a lot more money, all so they could make that quick $150 million they didn't actually need, and offer Microsoft software for their computers? I think not.
The most likely explanation was simply that Apple needed money and the antitrust stuff really wasn't the major motivating factor, as much as Apple fans claim it is.
And you can't change the past either, "my friend". Microsoft wouldn't have been where they were if they hadn't stolen from Apple to begin with.
Running late for a Genius appt., I was rushing through the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego. A tad preoccupied with making the appt., I had the Apple Store app running, knowing that I could connect to their customer support… was halfway into the store when I realized that the Genius Bar hadn't moved, i just made my turn a few hundred feet shorter than i should have. Talk about a moron in a hurry & what his perception of that is…. It's just hard to take their retail expansion seriously, when they could be focusing their efforts on enhancing existing retail efforts @ big box electronics stores. They could improve the level of windows knowledge by having a company rep chatting with store staff & customers alike. microsoft's now slavish copying of Apple is becoming worrisome, like they've become stalkers….
Steve Jobs personally asked Bill Gates for the financial assistance. At the time, Apple was a few months from bankruptcy, Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple as unofficial CEO. The investment was packaged as a licensing agreement for microsoft, which provided microsoft with various Apple technologies & an end to the lawsuits. For Apple, it was a face-saving effort to shore up their finances until they could rollout a refreshed product line, new cost controls & self-supporting revenue base. The agreement also gave Apple time, knowing that microsoft would now support Office for the Mac & various other software titles for a certain period, meant that they could still retain some loyal users. This also gave Apple time to develop software titles to fill-in if microsoft cut any after the agreements expired. Thus OS X had a great web browser, Safari, when IE for Mac was pulled & when wmplayer was cut, OS X had options to support users to view virtually any files. Office for Mac generates a revenue stream substantial for microsoft that they wont ignore it
Dell tried retail back in 2006. They never made in money and shut down their retail presence in 2008.
Didn't Gateway try their hand at brick and mortar too…?
Just doesn't seem like the best business model for these "branded OEM" box makers, does it…
Someone mentioned how Burger King built their business by opening outlets near to McDonalds locations… Starbucks did the same vis a vis local / other chain espresso bars…
In both of those cases it was a case of one collection of 'branded' products vs another…. each was selling their own differentiated products mostly, competing directly with another firm's own products… stuff with specific 'brands' attached...
In the case of MS Store vs Apple Store, I see "90%" Apple branded products in one store, and aside from Office, WIndows and X-Box, not much MS branded product in the MS Store.
It does make a difference when comparing apples to apples (no pun intended)...
When I read "...taking someone on head to head...", to me it implies "running neck and neck" every step of the way… operating on competitive, almost equal terms...
except in this case….
Apple has almost 400 stores vs MS' 20….
Apple enjoys hundreds of millions of $ in sales every quarter vs MS' $13 million over two years...
This is not remotely "going head to head".
I think the headline is just horribly wrong here...
Comments
Somehow this image seems appropriate for this thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by stniuk
If you can't beat 'em, copy 'em.
Agreed! MS should open a chain of "family burger restaurants" all along the Interstate Highways, call 'em "Ballmer's Big Boy"… It would feature a caricature of Ballmer as a statue in front of every restaurant… They'd serve a massive stacked burger (called The Big B's Big Boy), offer an old style "drive in" option complete with roller skating Car Hops who can ALSO do a quick "Office Genius" consultation while you gulp down a shake and fries with that...
Burgers and a Shake with Fries and a Technical Consultation? It goes together like flowers and sunshine, like honey and bees, like… Nerds and Glasses!
Surely it couldn't be any worse than the real ideas in play…. could it?
Dell tried retail back in 2006. They never made in money and shut down their retail presence in 2008.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drandel
I wish MS tons of success with this. I'd love to see them give Apple some competition.
But so far, MS has only scratched the surface of having their own hard products to sell. Let's see ... there's soft stuff, Windows and it's many flavors (including Home Server); Office (I wonder if they sell Office for Mac in those stores??); and ... uh ... yeah, the hard Surface thing.
Another problem: Can the Microsoft Wise Guys (well, you can't really call them Geniuses, can you?) really help you find the right machine for you? Good luck.
I'm hoping that Dell is going to get with the program at some point, but so far they're pretty disappointing. Not that I'd personally buy a Dell, but Dell is better positioned to do retail than Microsoft, and it could (maybe, might) be some measure of competition added to the market mix.
Oh, yeah, forgot the XBox--they got that right.
Dell tried retail back in 2006. They didn't make any money at it and had to shut down their retail in 2008.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chronster
You can't change the past, my friend. Microsoft cared very little about such things, and if Apple had 1.2 billion on hand, $150 million wouldn't have been touted as what saved Apple. Microsoft's investment was focused on expanding to a platform to run their software on. Do you not remember the investment also came with Office, Internet Explorer, and other MS products to the Macintosh?
So Apple, a company that will go after anyone and anything in court to edge out more profits for themselves, decided to FOREGO an opportunity for a lot more money, all so they could make that quick $150 million they didn't actually need, and offer Microsoft software for their computers? I think not.
The most likely explanation was simply that Apple needed money and the antitrust stuff really wasn't the major motivating factor, as much as Apple fans claim it is.
And you can't change the past either, "my friend". Microsoft wouldn't have been where they were if they hadn't stolen from Apple to begin with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pooch
i forget, which acts have performed at previous apple store openings as customer draw gimmicks?
Ashley Tisdale & Justin Bieber performed at their first two store openings.
Whatever they did worked.
Whopper > Big Mac #JustSayn
Quote:
Originally Posted by 512ke
Didn't Burger King do this?
McD's did extensive research about where to locate their restaurants.
Burger King's business plan was just, 'build one near ever single McD's.'
Cheers !
I don't know what I just read or why I just read it in this thread, but it feels like a bot. Weird. Ah, well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayz
I'm not sure this is entirely correct. MS has been working towards dumping the Zune brand for some time.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2821128/microsoft-kills-zune-windows-live-branding-in-windows-8
Which is a good thing in my opinion. The brand is too closely associated with their failed music player.
I don't know if that is the case outside of the USA where the zune (hardware) was never released.
Personally I find the Zune software as annoying as itunes and would be glad to see it dumped.
Ah, messiah Microsoft!!! And without Edison, we'd be without light bulbs. That's BS, fan boy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chasedcook
Dell tried retail back in 2006. They never made in money and shut down their retail presence in 2008.
Didn't Gateway try their hand at brick and mortar too…?
Just doesn't seem like the best business model for these "branded OEM" box makers, does it…
Someone mentioned how Burger King built their business by opening outlets near to McDonalds locations… Starbucks did the same vis a vis local / other chain espresso bars…
In both of those cases it was a case of one collection of 'branded' products vs another…. each was selling their own differentiated products mostly, competing directly with another firm's own products… stuff with specific 'brands' attached...
In the case of MS Store vs Apple Store, I see "90%" Apple branded products in one store, and aside from Office, WIndows and X-Box, not much MS branded product in the MS Store.
It does make a difference when comparing apples to apples (no pun intended)...
The headline is still bothering me.
When I read "...taking someone on head to head...", to me it implies "running neck and neck" every step of the way… operating on competitive, almost equal terms...
except in this case….
Apple has almost 400 stores vs MS' 20….
Apple enjoys hundreds of millions of $ in sales every quarter vs MS' $13 million over two years...
This is not remotely "going head to head".
I think the headline is just horribly wrong here...
Just sayin'...