Is the Microsoft Store just a clone of the Apple Store? Probably, but who cares?
Apple, as a brand, is a very strong one. People buy into it, feeling proud to boast they own an Apple product. Unfortunately, a big part of this is style over substance, but it’s still something Microsoft could do with imitating. And the Microsoft Store is a good first step, being an imitation (although a very good one) of the Apple Store. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
If there is one thing Apple does well that is selling itself and its products. I’ve never known a company to have managed PR so well and built up such a fanboy following as Steve Jobs’ little band. Microsoft, on the other hand, has struggled to move with the times and portray a good image. It doesn’t seem to have affected its products any (with the possible exception of Internet Explorer) but it could certainly learn a few things from Apple.
And that’s exactly what it seems to have done with its new retail stores.
October saw the first Microsoft retail stores open. I was hoping they’d be a little different than the dull, lifeless places your typical Apple Store is, and they are… a little. However, by all accounts, they are very similar, with Microsoft clearly having taken notice of what Apple were doing in the retail sector and trying to build on top of that already-strong grounding.
Famed Microsoft blogger Joe Wilcox spent Black Friday checking out the Mission Viejo Microsoft Store to see how it shapes up against the standard Apple Store.
He reports that the layout is very similar and there is even a Guru Bar that can only be a clone of Apple’s Genius Bar. However, unlike in an Apple Store, all the staff at the Microsoft Store looked like geeks and like they knew what they were talking about. Overall, Wilcox states that Microsoft’s move into retail has been pulled off very successfully.
So, Microsoft owes a small debt of gratitude to Apple for the look and feel of their new retail stores. And Apple fanboys are probably unhappy about this supposed cloning. But isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Or does the fear of competition mean that thought no longer applies?
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November 29th, 2009
It wouldn’t matter what MS does or doesn’t do, the Apple fanboy haters will continue just that…haters. regardless of any logic.
November 30th, 2009
Apple didn’t invent the concept of a shop.
The response from Apple fanboys and the anti-MS community is as typical as it is comical.
It’s not really big news when two companies in the same industry sector do similar things. Especially if that similar thing is opening a shop!
November 30th, 2009
I think you will find that Sony actually had their branded stores open a long time before Apple, to name just one technology provider. Once again Apple are not the innovators everybody makes them out to be, they simply have a keen eye for a good idea and a good marketing department to exploit it.
November 30th, 2009
“It wouldn’t matter what MS does or doesn’t do, the Apple fanboy haters will continue just that…haters. regardless of any logic.” I love comments like this. Who does it make it seem like the haters are? MS people are being as defensive as Apple people were when they were in the doldrums a decade ago. Fun. We truly do like our computers. We have no reason to be defensive or hateful.
Well… Apple has reason to gloat over its stores. A Mac guy, I LIKE the fact that MS has stores. It’s good all around. I use their products and plan to access the Guru bar. The point is that when Apple announced their retail plans everyone – EVERYONE – on Wallstreet and beyond predicted it would be a huge failure. Gateway had tried and failed, as had others. The perception was that providing free tech support, on site delivery and great service would not work. And it’s been a huge success. The point isn’t that MS has stores – that’s good. The point is that Apple went out on a limb and took a chance (even Ballmer said they’d bomb) and now MS cashing in. That’s OK, but such me-too caution doesn’t reflect well on a tech company, it makes them look out of touch.
Does style over substance really reflect Apple’s success? Look at the original Mac operating system next to an MS-DOS machine. Compare the ipod to other mp3 players of the day. Look at the iPhone. There’s real innovation there and real value. Don’t belittle that. Apple makes pretty stuff, but that’s not what sells it. Laugh at my white laptop, and I’ll laugh at your viruses and system crashes while I work with media software that has won Emmies and Academy Awards for its innovation and functionality.
November 30th, 2009
Been to Best Buy lately? Notice how the retail environment is more friendly, helpful, the displays more accessible? Thank apple.
I agree. THe point is not that MS has stores. The fact that they copied Apples stores a few years after dissing them just makes them look like a lame-ass company. Why didn’t they come up with the idea? That’s the point. They never come up with anything. They trash new ideas until they are successful and then copy them. The stores are good.
November 30th, 2009
Hey Rimmer the point is that Apple stores are successful. The point is not to make “a store” but make a new kind of store that makes money and extends the brand.
November 30th, 2009
I can’t believe the blind brand-loyalty mentality that is goiong on here.
If you carwe to lift your eyes away from the computer field and check out other forms of retail shopfronts, you will see that the successfull big-name chains who compete against each other set their stores up in a remarkably similar fashion. if you need an example, just look at the similarities between various supermarket, hardware and department store chains. Despite the branding differences, the basic concepts are almost identical.
That’s not “me-too” -ism, it’s actually a realisation that when a good idea is clearly superior, then one would be foolish not to take notice and do something similar.
So Apple fans, if you need to perpetuate your sense of superiority, take solace in the fact that the sincerest form of flattery is imitation.