That's hilarious. One visit to a remote store at an off hour means absolutely nothing.
I was at the Seattle UVillage store yesterday at 5:30pm and it was busy. They closed at 6 (since it was Sunday) but still had a lot of people there as they started preparing to close up.
Of course, neither of these anecdotes means anything. What matter is that they keep expanding their retail presence because it's a success, and they have been seeing a lot of great customer satisfaction improvements because of it (their in-store customer service is excellent, like most Apple stores). Tech journalists and bloggers are always recommending that people purchase PCs from MS stores because they have better premium selections and come without the crapware you get elsewhere. They're really one of the smarter moves MS has made in recent years.
You forgot the fact that a year before I'd been in the exact same mall at 5pm on a Friday. The MS store was a ghost town then as it was the day I took the picture I posted. I did have a photo to back that claim up but my Phone accidentally went into the washer before I could download the images.
Retail for MS apart from X-Box is IMHO a clear loss leader. IT always has been. Your evidence was from Seattle. Where is MS Based? Just down the road. Stands to reason that it would be busy. My experience in Delaware was exactly the opposite.
As I said, MS has not deemed to open any stores in my country yet there are Apple Stores all over the place.
If MS was serious about retail at least they might open a store in say London or Paris or Berlin but AFAIK they have not.
Ballmer's Microsoft persistently believed that imitation yielded equivalence. As Steve Jobs famously said of the company then, "...they just have no taste". Emulating coolness cannot make you cool.
Microsoft under steve ballmer was the intersection of arrogance and cluelessness ... and in terms of sales, what did they blame? That Marketing and Hype was THE only reason people weere unwilling to pay more than $400 for a WIN PC or that the iphone sold so well. NEVER mind that apple's "hype" consisted of people standing on stage in front of slides and apple's ads, pretty straightforward and if anything, dull (no office dancing) - but of course, you can't go to ballmer and say - why aren't our products selling to consumers? because they're lowest bid components with a wonky and leaky OS? So, you tell him, if peopel could see our products in a classy store, people would line up! Of course, the truth is the truth - you can't force people to shop when they are UNINTERESTED. The new CEO has bigger issues so this "experiment" will run a few more years and then they'll quietly shut them down - probably by saying they're moving but then never re-open and hope no one notices.
BTW, retail rents are up to $2k a month per sqaure foot in the most expensive streets in Manhatten (Apple stores averge $6k a sq feet - at least twice as high as the #2 retailer) - probably most of the non big city locations are $250-500 per sq foot so you can do the minimum monthly nut not including employees ... and for all we know, those $800MM surfaces shipped are mostly at the MS retail stores in the back room.
Comments
Quote:
That's hilarious. One visit to a remote store at an off hour means absolutely nothing.
I was at the Seattle UVillage store yesterday at 5:30pm and it was busy. They closed at 6 (since it was Sunday) but still had a lot of people there as they started preparing to close up.
Of course, neither of these anecdotes means anything. What matter is that they keep expanding their retail presence because it's a success, and they have been seeing a lot of great customer satisfaction improvements because of it (their in-store customer service is excellent, like most Apple stores). Tech journalists and bloggers are always recommending that people purchase PCs from MS stores because they have better premium selections and come without the crapware you get elsewhere. They're really one of the smarter moves MS has made in recent years.
You forgot the fact that a year before I'd been in the exact same mall at 5pm on a Friday. The MS store was a ghost town then as it was the day I took the picture I posted. I did have a photo to back that claim up but my Phone accidentally went into the washer before I could download the images.
Retail for MS apart from X-Box is IMHO a clear loss leader. IT always has been. Your evidence was from Seattle. Where is MS Based? Just down the road. Stands to reason that it would be busy. My experience in Delaware was exactly the opposite.
As I said, MS has not deemed to open any stores in my country yet there are Apple Stores all over the place.
If MS was serious about retail at least they might open a store in say London or Paris or Berlin but AFAIK they have not.
Where's their grand retail plan now eh?
BTW, retail rents are up to $2k a month per sqaure foot in the most expensive streets in Manhatten (Apple stores averge $6k a sq feet - at least twice as high as the #2 retailer) - probably most of the non big city locations are $250-500 per sq foot so you can do the minimum monthly nut not including employees ... and for all we know, those $800MM surfaces shipped are mostly at the MS retail stores in the back room.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/microsofts-anechoic-chamber-sets-record-quietest-place-world-n445576
Oh, is it gratuitously dump on Dilger time again so soon? I completely lost track of time!
I like him and generally agree with his stance, but i never see any articles from him that aren't also hit pieces on some Apple competitor.
A site named AppleInsider is going to have some content bias... :-)
i don't think a store full of mostly children and young adults playing / checking email on products really counts for much does it?
The stuff Microsoft sells in its store are available everywhere. There simply isn't a need for them to have stores like there is for Apple.