Microsoft nails retail store logo and locations Microsoft has locked down the logo for the planned retail stores it hopes will take a bite out of Apple's PC and phone business. The company has been awarded a trademark for the colored squares-within-squares logo that first popped up in a leaked presentation of a proposed layout for the stores. You can view Microsoft's …
No empty shops in existing malls - shock horror.
M$ does not buy retail fashion chain to evict them from leases - astonishment.
Customer has to move instead of shops being on conveyor belt - outrage.
New business does not emerge from egg fully matured and established - customers storm.
Company I do not trust opens shops nowhere near me to sell products I do not want - Disinterest reported.
I think the two photos are very revealing of the two companies in question.
Microsoft appear to have gone for a 'just good enough' generic shopping centre location; while Apple have gone the extra mile to produce a shop that is truly exceptional looking.
And that seems to be MS's problem. For years they've been able to get away with an OS or an office suite that has been 'just good enough'. It's Apple's attention to detail and keen focus on being able to do a few things well rather than a lot of things badly (cf. iPhone to every Win Mobile out there), that is seeing Apple in the ascendancy, and Microsoft in severe danger of becoming an irrelevance in the consumer space.
Oh well, it's amusing to watch them try...
That logo is pretty tragic
And although the MS store is just a pic of some hoardings, everything about that pic just reeks of generic corporate shopping centre meh. Whereas the Apple store pic, with it's lighting and minimal zen landscaping looks like it's been lifted straight from the pages of an Architectural magazine.
It would seem that comparing MS and Apple is about as valid as comparing M&S with Harvey Nichols. One has nailed aspirational marketing, the other is still struggling to come to terms with notion of style.
But before the shrill shill accusations start to fly... I've never bought an Apple product and I've always bought my work trousers from M&S. :-P Maybe MS should hire Twiggy and Myleene Klass to zhjuzh up their image. Can't be any worse than their current PR efforts. And and it seemed to do the trick for M&S, after all.
If the sketches and graphics on Gizmodo are anything to go by, MS are making the same mistake with their stores, that they make with their packaging. Anyone remember the spoof video where a Mac packaging box is MS'ified?
There is far too much 'noise', clutter and information going onto the walls. This looks like it will divert attention from what should be the main focus of customer attention, that being the machines on show. I always thought that was the main point of an Apple store, not to stare at the walls, but simply get hands on with the kit and play with. The kit can then sell itself.
So now we know. You'd go into a MS store to:
• play on Windows 7 (which is like the Vista you have at home)
• play on MS Office (exciting stuff)
• play on a Zune (and be glad you bought an iPod)
• play on a 360 (which you can do at virtually any other games shop)
Odds for an Epic Fail have just shortened considerably.
"And although the MS store is just a pic of some hoardings, everything about that pic just reeks of generic corporate shopping centre meh. Whereas the Apple store pic, with it's lighting and minimal zen landscaping looks like it's been lifted straight from the pages of an Architectural magazine."
Funny, our Apple store looks like the mobile phone shop, the Sony Centre, The TV shop, in fact pretty much every other bland electronics store in the shopping centre.. Hell McDonalds has more style about it.
One trendy shop does not make a chain.
You didn't really read the rest of my post properly before taking the bait, did you? Have another look.
As for bringing Sony Centre s into this... I've yet to come across any Sony Centre that projects any image other than "this an expensive version of Richer Sounds". But, just like Apple gadgets, the Sony brand is something I avoid.
Sony Centres are at the av geek end of a spectrum that has Apple at the chic accessory end. Which is ok if you like that kind of thing.
And that's precisely my point. I don't buy Apple or Sony stuff cos I recognise that beyond the geek/chic frontage is a world of overpriced lock-in. Richer Sounds on the other hand...
MS shouldn't have invited this on themselves by suggesting they'd go toe to toe with Apple.
M&S would never claim that they're gonna directly square up to Harvey Nichols. They'd just resolve to do what they do, but better, and maybe throw a few decent enough adverts out there to bolster their position.
Similarly, MS should just crack on with the job of opening some stores and making a decent enough job of it. Living up to grandiose promises is not their strength. Simply doing "most things well enough for most folk" is what they do best. They should leave the "some things done quite well" tactics to Apple.
A lot of people ore going to be disenfranchised quickly as they bring their OEM PCs to see Microsoft reps for support of issues and find out microsoft charges a minimum $59 for consumer support on RETAIL OS versions, but all support for OEM products is done by the manufacturer. If you have a Dell or HP, and bring in to a microsoft store for help, minimum you'll pay $59 to talk to their "geek", posibly $99 to buy a Microsoft "token" while next door at Apple people are receiving training, getting help, and more, completely for free... Sure, if it's a "known" microsoft issue that there's a patch for, they'll refund your $59, but not until after they determine the problem is a covered problem... Most customers however would bring their PC in to simply be redirected to Dell support and told to bugger off.
When they're passing buy the Apple store all pissed off, having not been helped, and some guy with a Mac waiting outside to get in the store (they're often crowded, and subject to saftey regulations, and they let people in only as fast as people leave, with a very high tech concierge system and friendly people), and tell the Mac guy "good luck, they'll probably charge you for support too." the Mac guy will say, "nope, i made an appointment, and they told me it's free, I don;t even have a waranty!"
Then the concierge will say "would you like a tour? We'd be happy to show you a Mac to replace that Dell..." and Apple might win another customer. Regardless of price, a lot of disenfranchised customers will decide to simply buy from the competition to spite the original manufacturer... That, or they'll demand the $59 be compensated by Dell somehow. in the end, this can only work to ensure microsoft also starts offering completely free support in their storefronts, which then will have people from companies far and wide standing in line to have their business PCs fixed too, and rape microsoft for billions in service revenue profits.
Agreed.
"Couldn't" is short for "Could not". Simple as that.
I really don't get how using the exact opposite can have the desired meaning when used in this situation. Can anyone USians enlighten us on this one? I've never heard it said aloud. Is there some kind of particular emphasis on one of the words that changes the obvious meaning of the words in their written form?
Tangent: Adopting the USian tradition of removing non-spoken letters would mean that "couldn't" gets shortened to "cudn't". Or even, for some folk, "C---". But that'd only strengthen the feeling of the sentence, with it becoming "I, C---, care less"! :-)
Where English (UK) and English (American) differ on this is from one of our colloquialisms, or way of talking. As Cockney has its rhyming slang, American has a way of expressing a point soooooo far that it circles right back around to mean the opposite. Like our politics, for example.
This phrase is usually said _very_ sarcastically, as in "I am patronizing you, and "agreeing" with you just because you are a twit, and it will get you off my back".
So, "I couldn't care less" about your issue, so go away and leave me alone; find somebody else to bother.
...and failed.
In Northpark Mall, Dallas, Texas, a Dell store opened across the hall from the Apple store. Several times, I walked by the Dell store (never in!) and the number of salespeople always outnumbered the customers.
The Dell store is long gone now. Now it seems that Microsoft is trying the same thing. The Gateway store in Dallas is long gone too.
I mean really. Apple has a less than 10% marketshare in the PC market, they're still a small player in the smartphone market, their income is less than Microsoft's typical PROFITS. I mean, what the hey? Maybe Microsoft should stop imitating everyone else and start making good products? Just a crazy idea I had...
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