Microsoft Opening Retail Stores
Microsoft did not specify how many stores will be opened, and released no details on which of its products the stores would carry.
The company did announce that it has hired ex-DreamWorks executive David Porter to head up the new retail division. Porter's background is in retail, having served as the vice president of Wal-Mart's entertainment division for 17 years.
Many of Microsoft's chief rivals already run their own retail outlets, including Apple, Sony and Nintendo.
Microsoft launched the Microsoft Retail Experience Center in January, a massive private Redmond facility with the goal of testing innovative retail technology. Click through for a video tour of the "experience":
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Bantis
replyThis seems like a really bad and pointless idea..
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No way , the Seinfield campaign was a brilliant success , this will be too
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I've never seen a AppleTV in a retail store (I'm talking retail, retail). Best Buy is their only retail partner now that compusa is gone, and most of the best buys I've been to never have any Macs at all. I realize they're out there, but not even remotely comparable to MS' penetration in every retail store.
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Fry's has an Apple section in their stores.
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^ ^ ^ ^
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The thing to note is that the Best Buy Apple section, per square foot, is the most profitable part of those stores. Apple Stores themselves are the most profitable retail stores per square foot in the country, period.
Its not like that sort of thing is irrelevant, it is wildly successful for them.-
Not saying it's not possible, but where do you get those numbers?
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part of that has to do with the profit margin on all the Apple products in the Apple Stores vs. Best Buy having much smaller margins on most products and actually losing money on some loss leaders. Apple Stores don't have to sell anything at a discount or sale price.
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Its called good business. Also note that a lot of the space in those Apple stores sell the same things that a Best Buy or Fry's does: business software, games, peripherals, accessories, printers, digital cameras, lots of the same stuff. The difference is that it is much much more focused.
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I'm really curious to see how much Microsoft can manage to move in those stores. If they can sell a good number of Windows or Office licenses in there, that's pretty good considering that the profit margin on that software is somewhere around 80%.
That said, most people I know buy OEM copies of Windows online at Newegg or something for the discount. Again, we'll see.
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http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402321/index.htm
Saks, whose flagship is down the street, generates sales of $362 per square foot a year. Best Buy (Charts) stores turn $930 - tops for electronics retailers - while Tiffany & Co. (Charts) takes in $2,666. Audrey Hepburn liked Tiffany's for breakfast. But at $4,032, Apple is eating everyone's lunch.
That astonishing number, from a Sanford C. Bernstein report, is merely the average of Apple's 174 stores, which attract 13,800 visitors a week.
An investment board I'm on had a link with the Best Buy figures a few months back, but I can't seem to find them right now.
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