Apple, Microsoft retail stores playing tag
We've mentioned how closely Microsoft's retail stores resemble Apple's, and now they're even physically close. At least in one Washington mall. Downtown Bellevue reports that Microsoft will open a store in the Bellevue Square Mall, just three spaces away from an existing Apple Store. Feeling a little cramped, Apple will relocate its store to a new spot that's further away from its rival, around a corner and down a long hallway.
This isn't the first cat-and-mouse game that the two companies have played with their retail stores. Last October, Microsoft opened a store in a Mission Viejo, California mall with an Apple Store. Two months before the grand opening, Apple closed their location, enlarged and renovated the place and then re-opened one month after the Microsoft store opened. The two spots are just under 400 feet apart.
[Via ifoAppleStore]
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We've mentioned how closely Microsoft's retail stores resemble Apple's, and now they're even physically close. At least in one Washington...
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Yeah, I must agree. I've read your other comments, and you really do seem like a nasty, hateful person.
June 02 2010 at 11:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou know Microsoft is opening another store in the Park Meadows Mall in Denver on June 10th just down the hall from the Apple Store as well...
June 02 2010 at 2:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAnnoying? Condescending?
I haven't been in (or seen -- where are they?) a Microsoft store, but I've never found Apple personnel to be anything but helpful.
What were you asking them?
you are too stupid to live.
June 01 2010 at 5:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAll have a month ago it would have been great to see pc guy 10 steps away from the pc store but as you walked towards the apple store in a full sized backlit sign shaking his finger at you or
in a pose trying to hold you back.
If it's a battle the brand personality will win hearts and slay others.
Trust me we would like to "forget" some things or certain people like you....
June 01 2010 at 5:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyApple should embrace this by using mall and instore signage. Imagine walking out of the ms store to a large mall sign of the BSOD and an arrow to tech support 400 ft left (apple logo). Or something playing off the new campaign for apple since they have left the I'm a mac/pc campaign but that could have worked in the malls with ms and apple
store so nicely!
It will take a whole lot more than proximity to an Apple Store to make Microsoft's stores a success... like a miracle.
June 01 2010 at 3:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPlaying tag? They have like two stores. And having a store, and getting people to actually walk in and spend money is a completely different thing.
MS is welcome to blow as much of their cash on empty store fronts as their ego requires. Won't change their business. Start dressing Ballmer in a black turtleneck if they think it will help. Whatever.
The bottom line is they just have an entrenched Soviet style layer of administrative apparatchiks who only care about personal power and whim ("What about Zune-branded cyberpants?! See... it's a pair of pants... that can play music! Also, access the Web.") and don't know jack shit about innovation or consumer demand.
MS is going to ride the Windows desktop OS into their grave. And Office. They got nothing else in the pipeline. They're working off a template that was cutting edge in 1980.
It always cracks me the hell up that people ask Bill Gates about the future of computing. And then actually listen like the answer will be worth something.
it is also very possible that it's just total coincidence. spring is a time where malls do a lot of construction work. they have store leases run out (no one wants to be moving in during summer when traffic could be higher, same for the 'christmas' period) and so on.
very likely this mall was working out a deal with a small and overcrowded Apple store to move into a bigger space that was opening up (being unable to simply expand because the neighboring stores were staying put). meanwhile some other shop was leaving and Microsoft snagged it. nothing more or less.
How many stores does microsoft have? Is it even relevant? Sony had retail stores, Nokia had retail stores, they both failed. One could say that the collapse of Circuit City and CompUSA show how difficult running a successful consumer electronics operation is without having specialized value. Apple has proven (even in a recession) that they have specialized value in the retail experience, product selection, and customer service after sale. And, that they do it without cannibalizing their retail partners and online store is remarkable.
June 01 2010 at 2:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCompusa and circuit city collapsed because of ....
Best Buy. Who doesn't love BB? :-D
But hey Sony and nokia stores are still around, just not widespread. There's a Sony store in costa Mesa, ca and in Camarillo, ca. There was a nokia store back in April when was in Chicago. Never seen a nokia store before but I was surprised.
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