Re:Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores
by graeme on Friday June 26, 2020 @06:10PM
(#23657643)
Yeah I think it misses the rationale for the Apple stores. Jobs felt that Apple products were different, and weren’t getting a good sales experience by having big box store employees sell them.
This proved a correct thesis for the apple store, and then the stores grew as apple built mass market products.
Microsoft’s product lineup does fairly well. But it is not mass market. And while they are different from PCs, they still run Windows, which is widely familiar among laptop buyers. Further, retail is less important a channel than it used to be. Microsoft can market its products directly online. So even if Microsoft has some of the disAdvantages Apple had, it doesn’t really have the full use case.
Re:Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores
by scarface74 on Friday June 26, 2020 @01:49PM
(#23654812)
I wouldn’t go to an Apple store to buy a computer because you can only buy stock configurations. I would go in to get a feel for them and order online. In the case of Apple Stores. They don’t care if people are “showrooming” and then buy online. Apple gets paid either way.
Re:Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores
by WrtCdEvrydy on Friday June 26, 2020 @04:47PM
(#23656839)
You can also "ship to store" for Apple. Great if you are a working professional and don't want to leave that stuff on your porch at home.
Re:Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores
by TwoNineFive on Friday June 26, 2020 @11:53PM
(#23659400)
Great observation on the "mee too!" thing. Microsoft is basically a Me Too company. Look at all their products and history.
Like I'm sure that's what the point was. Someone would go try some Macs out at the Apple store and walk past the Microsoft store on the way to their car. They'd go in, check out the goods (as a matter of comparison shopping), and possibly buy a PC instead.
In my experience though, post-iPhone, very few people go to Apple stores to buy computers. Sure, that's still probably a lot of people, but 99.99% of the people in the store seem to be there about an iPhone (half the time, an iphone that they broke and expect to be fixed under warranty lol).
MS was in the business of selling phones for a while. I wonder if their stores lost traffic because they don't do phones anymore.