Microsoft Stores Staffing Up… With Apple Store Employees
Microsoft is beginning to staff up their upcoming retail store chain using freshly poached Apple Store managers and employees. Using “significant raises” and in some cases, moving expenses as the carrot, Apple Store managers are hunted and then asked to contact their (now former) top Apple Store salespeople and offer them similar incentives to switch from Mac to PC.
Employees, of course, are not the only thing Microsoft is taking from the Apple Store experienced. Having hired Apple’s former retail location scout, George Blankenship, their plan is to open up right next door to Apple Stores everywhere.
Though they still, stupefyingly, don’t seem interested in actually selling much of anything (they’re focusing on consumer experience), along with the shrink-wrap copies of Windows 7 and Office, Zune HD and XBox 360 that Microsoft manufactures themselves, they’ll be showing off their hardware partners’ wares with PC, PCTV, and Smartphone walls, along with Learn, Connect, and Info tables, and “Guru” bars modeled after… you guessed it…
The strategy is certainly sound, but we’re still not sure that a company with a split software/hardware model will find the same formulae brings the same success.
[The Loop via Ars Technica]
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:57 am
There goes the neighborhood.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:25 am
Something apple, google, palm and everybody else does all the time. I’m surprised all devices don’t look and act exactly the same!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 am
If Microsoft really wants to go head-to-head with Apple in this space, they should bring about their own innovations in consumer experience rather than playing catchup and copying Apple. There is only 1 Apple, Microsoft should focus on being Microsoft, not Apple version 2.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:31 am
When this idea flops what will the employees do? Will apple take back the former employees? Probably not.
Any employees that happen to be reading this…think before you make the jump! If this goes under then MS will have no problem throwing you under the bus!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 am
Microsoft have to be the biggest me too company in existence. They have no sense of shame whatsoever, you’d think that a company that spends close to $5Billion a year on R&D would be able to come up with their own ideas. Just goes to show money isn’t everything.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Instead of calling their plan stupid I prefer to think of it like this. Kobe Bryant styled his game after the greatest guard to ever play basketball (Jordan) and in doing so also became one of the greatest scorers to ever play. What’s to say that this an doesn’t work? Or that MS won’t innovate?
Why do Apple fanboys want every competitor to fail? So Apple can become even more controlling? I wish MS success so that consumers have a viable alternative to Apple.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:57 am
Microsoft could do really good with the new stores if they come out with a smart phone that improves all the things that apple don’t let people do in their device even if that means copying a litlle but that’s they way things are. One company comes out with an idea and another company improves it and Microsoft can do it. If Microsoft comes out with a phone and it has better GUI (graphical user interface) and a longer lasting battery and number one an app store they woulb be a step a head of apple
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 am
There will no doubt be pro-Microsoft people coming into this thread soon to scream “Apple didn’t invent this or that” and “Apple wasn’t the first to do this or that.” But the harsh reality is that Apple has created the illusion with the general public that THEY are the innovative ones, while others simply copy them. Most people never learn of the companies Apple has borrowed from, bought from, stole from, or copied from. But people HAVE heard of Apple — and when Palm, Microsoft, and others follow Apple a day late and a dollar short, they DO learn of it.
Microsoft will never innovate and set trends, or even fool people into thinking they have, the way Apple successfully has.
People are only going to walk into these stores to see if they can use the bathroom.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 am
Well at least there will be a store with a working ZuneHD model to try hands on instead of all the nonfunctional ones at other retailers! Good luck Microsoft…worked out well for Gateway and all those Dell kiosks at the mall.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 am
the fanboys on this website are hilarious! to say that Microsoft doesn’t innovate is simply incorrect. just because you prefer apple over Microsoft doesn’t mean that they’re the only company putting out quality products. in fact, if apple really was this super company, why does Microsoft hold a massive lead in computer and software sales worldwide? the competition is not close, fanboys
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
@jbrandonf: It’s not that Apple fans such as myself want to see Microsoft fail. What we want to see are companies coming to the table with some some innovation and originality.
Take this for example. What if every rock band in the world decided to just cover U2 songs because they are so popular. If they choose to mimic U2’s performance style and song writing instead of developing their own, we’d like little use for more than ONE band. U2. Now, U2 didn’t invent music but they took an industry and made it something special. Just like Apple did with technology and marketing. Apples hardware, software, and marketing style are are original and those to “borrow” from it only make themselves look like cheap imitations.
MS has done that with the Zune, their “I’m a PC” commercials and creating that abortion of an OS called Vista just to make a pretty interface like OS X. As soon as they stop trying to make the next iPod killer or cutesy commercial and really focus on things like securing their OS from trojans, viruses, and malware; improving and stabilizing their Windows Mobile OS; and work on getting a winning product like the Xbox 360 stable so that it doesn’t constantly crash, then we’ll be happy see them succeed.
No Apple user, fanboys aside, wants to see MS fail. No thinking person would want a corporate monopoly on technology. That’s the kind of thing a true geeks nightmares are made of. The same is true with wireless carries. Seems like users want ever other carrier other then their personal favorite to fail not realizing that if, in fact they did, the last carrier standing would charge more and deliver less. Bend over!
So, again, I don’t want to see them fail. I’d just like to see some real excitement coming from other companies as well as Apple. If, as some people say and I don’t agree with, is all about the marketing, then perhaps MS should focus more on Apple’s marketing team than their retail store employees.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
@tom: More people drive Fords than Mercedes but that doesn’t mean the Fords are better.
Many countries have banned the use of MS products after the Vista fiasco and have turned to products like Linux. Just because MS has a lead now doesn’t mean they’ll keep it. Actually, MS has started to see a loss in share for the first time in its history and with the likes of Ballmer and MS’s lack of originality as of late, it’s not too hard to conceive that MS will continue to slip if it doesn’t do something soon.
If they were THAT comfortable with their lead, they would not be so concerned about countering Apple with its silly “I’m only seven years old and I’m a PC” craptastic ads…
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:10 am
@tom:
Why was George W. Bush president for two terms? Therein lays your answer.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
@tom
Only windows holds a massive lead in what? the enterprise which uses cheap boxes made by a wide varieties of makers but not MS. The ITs in the enterprise are living on handouts from MS and without windows they are out of a job.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
@Tom
Microsoft innovations=?
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
If Apple is U2, does that make Xerox Parc Queen, or do we just prefer forgetting where Apple “borrowed” too?
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 am
Why was George W. Bush president for two terms? Therein lays your answer.
because he wasn’t innovative?
look kids. I only say this kind of stuff because for some reason, the fanboys get their panties in a bunch if anyone even mentions a fact like Microsoft makes more money than almost any other company in the world, that their man is the richest in the world, and more people are running windows than all other OS combined
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
ps @evilhomer: could you please tell me what apples share price was a year ago, how about two years ago? how about now? can you actually name a company whose share price hasn’t taken a nose dive recently? what a ridiculous statement lolz
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
One thing that has me really excited about Win7 is finally you can build your own Cablecard PC, which would one save you money on renting another cable box. Two you could decide to ditch the DVR functionality on your cable box
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:11 am
@tom:
No.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
Microsoft makes only an OS, not a computer, so why do they care if their employees use Mac computers? Hello! You can put windows on a Mac now!! Jesus Microsoft..
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
I know for a fact they have hired a number of people that were let go “for cause” or asked to resign. Not sure about active managers though as I have no insight into that. But MS seems to be trying to jump start their efforts and use these stores as a pilot and learn form these people the Apple way. Once that’s done, if these people work as they did at Apple, they’ll be gone too!
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Low life POS that what Microsh1t is and everyone that voluntarily goes out to buy a PEECee. Cheap ignorant, low class morons. Ill go wash my mouth and hate myself for wasting my time commenting on this trash. Filthy peasants.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 am
@Tom
your assesment of what pisses off “fanboys” couldn’t be more wrong. No one cares how much mone Microsoft has or how many people use their software vs. Apple or anyone else. Microsoft seems to have this need to get into everything whether it is profitable or not just for the sake of gaining “market share” in yet another arena. Maybe they should concentrate on making what made them in the first place ( os….office…..) the best it can be
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
@dev
actually I would say that apple is like nine Inch nails. Trent reznor didn’t invent “industrial” rock he simply presented it in such a way that made it accessible to the masses. That’s no easy task. Sooner or later someone was going to invent the wheel. Its how you implement that wheel that matters…..otherwise it’s just a wheel.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Whoever came up with this **** idea should be fired. A Microsoft store? Really?
How stupid.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Bill Gates took/bought other people’s technology, made fistfuls of money from it and became the richest man in the world. That is the American way. Microsoft will offer wads of money to would-be Apple defectors since most would sell their mothers and children for a few thousand dollars a year even if it wasn’t a recession. That is also the American way. When the MS Retail Store plan fails in a couple of years, they’ll just go back to Apple who will be opening even more stores. Microsoft is basically cloning the Apple chain down the the employees and putting a Windows sticker on it. How original.
But what difference does it make if Microsoft copies everything that Apple does when the clientele they are targeting is completely different from Apple’s clients? Microsoft is targeting poor Windows users that could just as soon shop in Costco or K-Mart for $300 crapbox computers. They buy whatever is cheapest at the moment and have no brand loyalty, whatsoever. Since Windows users are supposedly so much smarter than Mac users and they use Windows computers at work, they don’t need customer support or training so they don’t have a need for a Microsoft retail store. People can buy those cheap Windows computers everywhere, so surely Microsoft isn’t going to be selling them in their retail stores at a premium. I’m curious to see what computer brand is going to get top billing at Microsoft retail stores.
Those MS Gurus will have to be ten times smarter than an Apple Genius because of all the various Windows computer company boxes, PCI cards and Graphics cards are going to baffle even the smartest Guru to solve in a few minutes time. Windows users having problems are going to be lined up around blocks for miles waiting for Guru help. Those ex-Apple employees are going to wish they’d stuck with Apple and had fewer headaches with less pay.
Good luck with Microsoft on building a Cartier-style retail chain to sell Timex-priced watches to tightwad buyers. That should go over just grand. I guess their motto will be “Think cheap.”
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
What a shocker!!!! Ha, ha, ha….
September 25th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
We’ll see how long this little MS experiment lasts … once again, MS must follow the leader. Wonder how many employees will like Vista and all those wonderful dialog boxes?
September 27th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I wonder how apple will survive this one. Microsoft is shamelessly ripping off Apple’s ideas, but they will actually work. Apple better do something crazy, or else I forsee a day when they will cease to exist.
Who knows though, knowing apple, they will mange to do something so incredibly simple, yet innovating. As long as apple has innovation, and leaves Microsoft at least 1 step behind, they may survive.