Microsoft Goes Retail

After the spectacular failure of last year's Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign, Microsoft is trying yet again to "get hip". This time, they are trying to get in on some of the Apple cache by opening up a chain of retail stores. For me, Jon Methven of the New York Daily Intel hit the nail square on the head:

Microsoft gets more like grandpa every day. We love grandpa, although we’re not sure why he wears both suspenders and a belt, or why he occasionally shouts at the dog to stop stealing his caramels. But while senility is somewhat charming in grandpa, the same cannot be said about software providers. We shook our heads when we read this morning that Microsoft, eight years after the first Apple store opened in Virginia, was opening retail outlets, and that they'd hired execs from Wal-Mart to help them plan it. Wal-Mart! Oh, boy. As we all know, Apple stores are cool. The winding staircase. The open floor plan. The Genius Bar. Even the clerks with their hipster grins who seem to know a little too much about iPods. It all comes together in a way that makes a trip to get a computer part fun. We doubt such an improbable feat could be imitated by anyone, much less Microsoft.

I'm just waiting for the slew of bug jokes to hit the net after someone finds cockroaches in one of the stores. Coincidentally, it's been a year since I went Mac and I have never looked back.