Microsoft's Turf War
With the opening of two new stores near New York City last week, Microsoft now has 25 physical locations up and running.
Most notably is that one of these stores now resides three doors down from an Apple store. While Microsoft said this was inadvertent, it did say that choosing locations that are in close proximity to direct competitors has been a practice of the company.
Microsoft has certainly taken a page out of the Apple playbook with the design of its stores, with their modern décor, Apple-esque layouts and their very own version of Apple's Genius Bar called the Answer Desk.
The company hopes to have partners use these locations as a sort of clubhouse to develop relationships with consumers and other partners.
Look for even more stores to pop up in the coming months. Microsoft is planning to open up 34 temporary stores in malls across the country to sell its Surface tablets.
Have you been in a Microsoft store? How do they compare to Apple's retail locations? Let Doug know at [email protected].
-- By Chris Paoli
Posted by Chris Paoli on 10/01/2012 at 1:19 PM