Microsoft Announces Five More Microsoft Stores for 2013

Still waiting on the King of Prussia mall. Why do they continue to ignore the largest and most profitable retail space in America?

The Ala Moana Center has a very prominant Apple Store. I've been there. It is quite nice. It seems like Microsoft is trying very hard to compete head to head with Apple by opening stores close by. I am sorry, but that is the wrong approach. Microsoft needs to develop its own clintele and personality without direct comparisons. There are several things that the stores need, but doesn't provide.

1. Less choice. Yes, it has too much product. It needs to pare down to a few products and a few configurations.

2. It needs to be the "go to" place for traditional desktop and laptop computers. This area is severely lacking for precisely the reason that it is trying so hard to compete with Apple. It is neglecting the reason for its continuing dominance in traditional computers. It also needs to offer more innovative form factors, not the boring black/beige box that we are accustomed to seeing.

3. People need to be seen buying products here. It looks like a showroom. Touch, but don't buy. Unlike Apple Store, people are not buying here.

4. Sell PC Accesories. People need Touch Monitors for Windows 8, keyboards, mice, touch pads, kinect, and stereos. Surely less people need them due to iPad tablets, but lets not kid ourselves, the market still exists.

5. Change the look of the stores. Again, much like Apple Stores without the simple product line-up.

Whooohoo!!! The Somerset Collection in Troy Michigan. It is like we won the lotto! Here is the store locator: http://content.microsoftstore.com/home.aspx. I wonder if it help out that I kept entering different zip codes in Michigan for a whole day? :)

OMG! Not only software and hardward but dancing too at the The Somerset Collection, Troy, Michigan location.
http://content.microsoftstore.com/store/detail-comingsoon/Troy-MI. MS is so hip now a days. :-P

Why don't they just leverage that Hyper-V magic and offer a virtual showroom where you can try out the products online?

They need more video, but also more interactivity on their site. If they could create faster-launching virtual machines for online interactivity and just stream it as video with a full multimedia experience, ala OnLive, they could win a lot of customers over. They also need more tutorial videos that are less whiz-bang super-fast video slices and include more descriptive voice-overs. The pacing that they use in the Windows Phone 8 commercials are better than what they use for Windows 8. Take a look and compare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CVBJ0FaCuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2cftjyHys

Now, did you notice how much more sped up the Windows 8 commercial was compared to Windows Phone 8?

That's TOO DAMN FAST, Microsoft! Put down the Adderall and slow it down a notch. Not everybody is part of the meth generation!

I have some reservations about these kinds of stores. I think they're not so bad in offering customers a first-hand look at products, but will they survive longer than Best Buy, whom has discovered that people like to get a hands-on feel for products but just end up sourcing it out as cheap as possible online? Will Microsoft suffer the cost of showroom-ing?

The other part of me worries that Microsoft isn't prepared to support any third-party products that are sold through the store, post-sale. And I doubt they have a computer repair department, which Apple at least does (but is expected to, since they build their own systems). Customers do expect that they can get local computer service where they make their purchase. And I'd like to point out that this is one area where cloud services haven't come anywhere close to matching. You really need a hands-on approach to servicing a PC. There are hardware tools that there are no software solutions for too.

So I don't think Microsoft can offer services that a local PC shoppe can, but at the same time, they need to have a showroom-type approach. I still say that an online showroom is a better way to do it. They need the site to look less like a printed page though. Leverage HTML5 where possible, Silverlight for older browsers. Website design needs to get away from the old hyperlinked-newspaper look. Seriously, it's 2013.

I'm pretty pumped about the last two because I'm FROM Troy, MI and I moved to Schaumburg, IL. haha.

Both Somerset and Woodfield malls are absolutely beautiful. More-so somerset, though.

I grew up down the street in Walpole Ma and sure Dedham would have been great, but Natick isn't that far away. I live in Ohio now, been meaning to check out the one in Beechwood, just haven't got there yet.

If the other places are like Summerset, then Microsoft an afford to sell Surface at $500 a pop. Summerset is a high-end mall where Joe Public couldn't afford to shop.