Plus, it gave Apple the perception that there's higher demand for Apple products over Microsoft. Some average Joe thinking about a tablet walks by a packed Apple Store and an empty Microsoft store. It's pretty obvious how that influences their decision.

Microsoft set up a lot of stores in the same malls as Apple Stores. This disparity in numbers has always been the case, no matter how good the MS experience has been as others have pointed out. Seems Apple learned their lessons from the first time the battled Microsoft. Consumers don't do as deep of a research as the tech crowd thinks.