Funny that you mention how MS is playing catch-up. I think you are partially correct, but not as much as you’d like to think you are. If you want to mention a company playing catch-up it would be wise to remember that Apple was doing that for years, and in some aspects, still is. It wasn’t until Jobs came back that Apple started to compete again on any level, and my guess is that once he is dead, there will be at least a minor slump before they can pick back up. It is the way business works, particularly in an arena like this; it is a revolving door.

As for BSOD, haven’t seen one of those in years. In fact I think the last time I saw one Apple was still trying to figure out how to make a cool operating system for people who don’t really need a computer to accomplish anything related to making money.

browsing can be equally fun, as you turn to see the familiar white tables with nothing on them, as the ms employees bring each element of their product line out for you on the table. sure the lag time between you and all the other customers might be annoying, but die hard ms customers will be murmurring how this is the most popular store in the world.

after several hours of shopping for the phenomenal zune, you go to the checkout line where several employees ask you prior to the purchase if you are certain you want to purchase something in the store. I can see a single room with one cash register at the point of purchase, and if the cashier breaks down from stress you are asked if you’d like to send a claim to Microsoft corporate headquarters. but sure enough it does go through and you are pleasantly asked for your email address, your social security number and possibly your first born son before handing your card to the cashier.

you might need to enter your card number a few times, because there is no place to swipe it.

upon leaving you might have some trouble because the wall where the door is is a giant blue wall.

Yeah, they have a 70% gross margin because they rip off their customers with outrageous pricing on their non-subsidized products. It’s almost as if they have no confidence in the better product winning the volume. They have to go for gross margin on each product because they accept that they can’t compete and win on volume.

Hey Apple, grow up, and accept that a the vast majority of computers are purchased for business related purposes, or at least that folks want them to be compatible with their business related computers. Stop focusing solely on tweens and cool and focus on the end user.

Then you won’t have to worry about MS building its stores next to yours, or what kind of commericials they air. For the record, as a business person, I always thought there “I’m a MAC” commercials were silly and missed the point.

Iphone is cool, though!

So true…. it’s like apple fanboyz are sooooooo pissed that MS is basically forcing Apple to lower their ridiculous pricing on MACs. LOL! I’ve been laughing at all the outrage since the conference where this anecdote was told.