Celebrate Your Next Birthday At the Microsoft Store 301
theodp writes "Chuck E. Cheese, meet Bill H. Gates. A leaked PowerPoint posted at Gizmodo provides a glimpse of what Microsoft's retail shops may look like, noting that you'll even be able to pay to celebrate your birthday there. Some of the stores that were profiled for ideas were Nike, Nokia, Sony, Apple, and AT&T. Microsoft's take on the Genius Bar is the Answers Bar (aka Guru Bar, Windows Bar)."
Re:Holy Apple Store Batman. (Score:1, Interesting)
And what exactly will they be selling? (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows 7? Office? and some mice/keyboards?
I don't understand the point? Is there any big product line I am missing, that people actually buy?
As far as I understand it, MS lives from big corporate mass-license sales for Windows and Office. And everything other is pretty much irrelevant.
Sounds to me like the Zune of stores. Something that really nobody cares about, because it's just a knockoff saying "I wanna be just as cool as Apple" (note the "wanna", which is not a "am", and the "just as" which is not a "more" :).
I wonder when Microsoft will stop imitating and start innovating. And I guess: Only when they are forced to. ;)
Re:Will it be next to the furniture store? (Score:5, Interesting)
1) ...and there was a breeze because all the windows crashed!
2) ...and I felt kinda blue, because of all the BSODs flashing!
3) ...and through the windows you could see a great Vista!
4) ...and at the bar you can order using the Start Menu!
5) ...and the place was entirely wet because of all the squirting!
6) ...and all of the employees were carrying Notepads!
7) ...and if you're tired you can take a nap, or sleep, or hibernate!
8) ...and the clerk didn't know what I meant, so he said "Bad command or file name"!
*sigh*
That video is professionally made, obviously. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:2 Things: (Score:5, Interesting)
Right...because the only reason Linux hasn't replaced Windows on most PCs, so far, is because Linux is so hard to get.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Birthday party idea may not be ridiculous (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was a kid, a party at Chuck E Cheese was like an orgy of endless video games. Today, they have a handful of old arcade cabinets and some carnival games for crappy prizes. I've been dragged there for a few birthday parties with my kids. While the 5-8 year-olds have a great time with the ball-pits and singing robots, the teens and pre-teens look like they're in hell.
A room full of 360s with wall-sized displays and high-end audio, Madden and Halo competitions for games and accessories, all you can eat pizza; it sounds like a dream come true for tween boys. Your kid could fill out a wish list of games for gifts and grab bags would have credits for the Live store. It sounds like a great idea to me.
The NY Times was... skeptical. (Score:3, Interesting)
I admire Linus Torvald's leadership, but in saying Microsoft hatred is a Disease [slashdot.org], he seems to be more and more alone. It's not really hatred, it is dislike, and dislike of Microsoft is becoming widespread. I'm not sure what Torvald's intention was in saying that, but of course the actual social effect is the opposite of what he is overtly saying. The actual effect is something like, "The dislike of Microsoft is becoming so widespread and intense that it is like an epidemic."
Microsoft hired this man to be the head of retail sales: Microsoft Appoints David Porter as Corporate Vice President of Retail Stores [microsoft.com]. Note in the upper right hand corner of that article, under "Press Resources", that Waggener Edstrom [waggeneredstrom.com] is still Microsoft's public relations agency. That's interesting, since Pam Edstrom's [waggeneredstrom.com] daughter, Jennifer Edstrom, wrote Barbarians Led by Bill Gates [amazon.com], published in 1998, with a former Microsoft manager. Quote from the first Amazon review in the list of reviews: "The authors are evidently very anti-Microsoft, yet at the same time their stories come across not so much as how stupid Microsoft is, but how mismanaged and lucky Gates & Company have been, which is closer to the truth than many people think."
What do you think of Microsoft's new vice-president? Looking at his photo [microsoft.com], is he the kind of person who can make retail stores that people admire? He doesn't know how to tie his tie [how-to-tie...-video.com]. Can he make stores look good?
Re:Holy Apple Store Batman. (Score:4, Interesting)
A successful antitrust suit is a pretty good indication that people are not using a company's product though choice.
After the break-up of the Standard Oil trust, customers went right on buying from Rockefeller's regional operating companies.
He prospered. They prospered. The small independents faded out of the picture.
Re:Linus was right (Score:2, Interesting)
The geek resents Microsoft - and projects his anger on all the world. It is a peculiarly adolescent response.
That's flawed reasoning. Just because geeks don't like MS isn't proof that other groups feel different.
Most office staff I've met are given windows and don't like 'computers' because they really don't know that windows isn't 'computers'. If you give them linux or OS X instead they will be happier but for the most part they don't get the choice.
Facts no longer seem to matter.
Your arguments are emotive not logical.
The bazaars of the third world are filled with pirated copies of Windows.
They are also filled with Thai karaoke and Holywood flops, it's not proof of anything.
Here at home, sales of the Linux netbook have tanked.
Thats unproven. I brought 2 linux EEE pc's and left the default OS on them. They are great.
Walmart has pulled Linux off the shelves and off-line.
Would you like to buy a new car for $19.95 or download it for free? The free one is more recent. Actions of Walmart are not proof of much in this case.
No one in the states tried longer or harder to make a go of Linux in deep discount retail.
Due to Microsoft not allowing vendors to sell linux and windows without paying many times more for windows licenses. I take your point on linux specific hardware vendors though, they should but don't seem to exist.
For the Back-To-School trade, Walmart.com has 53 Vista desktops eligible for a free upgrade to Win 7 for sale - and God alone knows how many laptops.
Walmart makes money out of selling windows so they will sell it. It's not proof of anything. People are gagging for windows 7 not because it's good, but because they believe it's good. Like every windows release since always the hype says this is the magic release where all the problems get solved so people full of hope will go and buy it. Remember when windows 3.11 was billed as the OS you never needed to reboot? Or when NT 4.0 was billed as the hi-tech replacement for OpenVMS? People are suckers for good marketing.
Re:What are they selling? Culture! (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a difference in trends. Analysts derided Apple's retail stores originally, too, but so did they for the iPod, iPhone, MacBook, iTunes Music Store, and other Apple products or services, which eventually grew to be exactly what the market wanted and very popular indeed.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has been praised effusively by analysts every time they come up with a new product or service, or enter a new market to which they are not familiar; be it their Zune, Table PCs, Songsmith, Plays4Shure, their campaign of $30M to fight Apple's TV commercials, and yes, even Windows Vista; and with some very few and notable exceptions, they all have flopped spectacularly.
I'm not saying that the Microsoft Stores will fail, I have no way of knowing that, but I would be reluctant to believe that after all these missteps, all of a sudden Microsoft has found the magic formula to being "cool" and popular with the kids, and to offering something that the masses really can get passionate about. Especially when this new venture smells so much like a cross-cultural translation of an Apple store.
-dZ.
Re:Will it be next to the furniture store? (Score:3, Interesting)
I just want to bring a MacBook to their "Answer Bar" and ask "I can't seem to find the Windows key on this keyboard."
Why does it seem that the MS core business strategy is to copy whatever Apple is doing. It was the birth of Windows...and they continue to this day with "Aero" and "Sideboard". Then they broke out of just copying the OS and started pushing the Zune. Now they want to copy the stores too? I guess if anyone really wants to know what the next MS "innovation" will just look at what Apple is successful with. I am curious as to how they have redefined "innovation" as "copy what that other guy has been doing for years."
Re:Personalization (Score:3, Interesting)
No, being dumb and rude is going into a shop with which you've had no prior business dealings and demand a refund on something they didn't sell to you, making a huge scene and then claiming it as some kind of exceptionally retarded protest. In the circumstances, I think they'd be quite justified in explaining to you it's none of their business.
(But it still would be fun to have a bunch of people pulling this off a few times a day, just to piss off MS!)
"A few times a day"? You grossly overestimate the number of idiots in the world who want to evangelise Linux in what is quite possibly the stupidest, most infantile way ever. It wouldn't even piss off Microsoft - it'd piss off the store clerks, Microsoft the corporation wouldn't know or care.
Uhhh...who is talking about 'making a huge scene'? I most certainly am not. You can go in with your windozed laptop (box unopened so no licence-terms to speak of yet), and ask *politely* something like: "Excuse me sir, I have bought this machine and it seems not to be possible to buy it without your OS on it. Would it be possible to get back the money I payed for it if you take back the software I do not plan to use?" :-).
Not exactly what I would call making a scene. Maybe *you* would make a scene out of it (if I have to judge from your posts you would), but not me.
If the store clercs would start calling me an idiot instead of *politely* telling me that what I want is not possible and why, still keeping a polite discussion possible, they are not fit for their jobs. (If they *think* I'm an idiot I don't care. Thoughts are free.)
I know MS the corporation would not care, but if you work in a MS-shop you (at least almost) deserve to be pissed off a little bit from time to time