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News & ArtsTuesday, September 22, 2009
Tech / Retail The Microsoft Stratagem
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 12:27 PM
People that have spoken to The Loop on condition of anonymity confirm that Microsoft has contacted a number of Apple’s retail store managers to work in their stores. In addition to “significant raises,” the managers have also been offered moving expenses in some cases.
Microsoft is then reportedly asking those managers to contact their best Apple salespeople and hire them on for the stores, too. But the poaching doesn't stop with the staff. The store's concept appears to be lifted wholesale from the Apple plan, too:
Microsoft will also have a “Guru Bar,” modeled after the Apple Genius.
Perhaps next, they will reinvent the Zune as the mPod. Much more is at The Loop.
2
Doesn't this just make Microsoft seem even more pathetic in comparison to Apple? It's innovation and not just marketing that has made Apple stand out. If Microsoft can't compete by innovating then they're just wasting money with these stores.
3
Really? Poaching is exclusively a Microsoft thing? Welcome to business.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/co…
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/co…
4
These business practices are all the norm, but the "Guru Bar" thing is too much. Microsoft doesn't make PCs, and is there even enough Zoons out there to keep them busy?
Marketing strategy has never been their strong suit.
Marketing strategy has never been their strong suit.
5
Bigger, more established companies often avoid first-mover status. Why break new ground when you can wait and see how a competitor fares, and then copy a strategy if it's a good one? In fact, first movers are rarely as successful as prudent followers. Apple did not create the first mp3 player, but it moved in and perfected it after others paved the way.
7
I hope they dress up the new stores to look like long-time neighborhood coffee shops, maybe with art and paint copied from a nearby oasis, a bit of local color and serendipity.
Maybe they can serve Starbucks?
Maybe they can serve Starbucks?
9
So um, businesses doing what businesses do. How... exciting.
It’s not like Apple is some paragon of corporate virtue. It’s just more trendy.
It’s not like Apple is some paragon of corporate virtue. It’s just more trendy.
10
The only people who are gonna complain a lot and be pissed about this are Apple customers... and they aren't going to buy any Microsoft stuff anyway, so MS doesn't give a shit if they're pissed.
11
Microsoft has such deep pockets that they are just going to keep doing things like this that appear pathetic and sad over and over again until one of them succeeds and then will be hailed as genius.
13
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absoultely no taste. And what that means is, I don't mean it in a small way I mean it in a big way. In a sense that they, they don't think of original ideas and they don't bring much culture into their products."
~Steve Jobs (1995)
~Steve Jobs (1995)
14
@Carollani MS has done some amazing innovations and they still are. Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are full of amazing enterprise additions that will make my job extremely easier. MS Exchange has been a strong leader in corporate messaging for almost 10 years and has only gotten better and better over time. Even on the Consumer side they have done great things with the Xbox and 360.
This doesn't mean that MS Retail will work amazingly but I do see good things out of it. The Guru bar won't be the same underpaid comptards working at Best Buy, I'm guessing MS will at least require the GuruBar employees to be hold MCP or higher certifications. Will it beat the Apple Store maybe not but I don't see it failing like all the fanboys expect.
This doesn't mean that MS Retail will work amazingly but I do see good things out of it. The Guru bar won't be the same underpaid comptards working at Best Buy, I'm guessing MS will at least require the GuruBar employees to be hold MCP or higher certifications. Will it beat the Apple Store maybe not but I don't see it failing like all the fanboys expect.
17
Oh, puh-leeze. As if Apple is the source of everything innovative. Apple's got some nice design chops and a world-beating marketing department (if you like U2). Jobs was right: Microsoft's got bad taste. But as @14 points out, MS does some pretty smart stuff. Hmm, I don't recall what Apple's server products look like.
But I'm not sure what these stores are for. Microsoft doesn't sell hardware (much), and nobody in their right mind buys software in the box anymore, or won't for much longer. Do you see Google opening up storefronts anytime soon? I don't. Free tech support isn't much of a retail strategy. I think it's a "prestige" move.
But I'm not sure what these stores are for. Microsoft doesn't sell hardware (much), and nobody in their right mind buys software in the box anymore, or won't for much longer. Do you see Google opening up storefronts anytime soon? I don't. Free tech support isn't much of a retail strategy. I think it's a "prestige" move.
18
@14 you don't get it. They are offering people more money to come work for them. This is bad... for some reason or another.
But yeah MS like any major company makes some good products and decisions and some bad ones. Hell Apple has some majorly crappy products out there and damn near drove themselves out of business though stupid decision making.
But yeah MS like any major company makes some good products and decisions and some bad ones. Hell Apple has some majorly crappy products out there and damn near drove themselves out of business though stupid decision making.
19
MS makes plenty of usable business tools, but has never succeeded at anything fun or cool. They keep trying though.
Fnarf: Google up "OS X Server". There you go.
Fnarf: Google up "OS X Server". There you go.
21
uh, i think most Apple Store employees are pretty dedicated MacAddicts and dedicated PCaphobes...unless they offer huge pay increases I don't see that many defecting...
22
@19, you mean Snow Leopard Server? Yeah, right. That'll happen. All the thousands of business applications will be rushing to get into that. I don't think. And even Apple knows that Exchange is where it's at; that's why they're concentrating now on stealing client share (i.e., replacing Outlook), not server share (Exchange).
What's going to hurt Microsoft's server position in the long run isn't Apple, it's some unknown party (maybe the next generation of Google Docs) wiping out their Office cash cow, plus maybe iPhone, Blackberry, or Palm figuring out how to destroy the Windows desktop. Then pick off the server apps in the browser, and suddenly Microsoft doesn't have any products anymore. They turn into IBM.
Apple might play a role in this (with the iphone) but I doubt it. What I think is going to happen is the client device OS will just cease to have any importance at all. Not there yet, though. But I know that looking at OSes is the most boring thing in the world now, which doesn't bode well for Windows 7.
To the point of this article: even if there's a market for software in these MS stores, NO ONE is going to buy these server products there. Microsoft doesn't make phones. The fun-ness or coolness of XBOX doesn't make a bit of difference because people buy those at Walmart or Target, not expensive custom stores. The Zune, whatever its actual merits, is a dead duck. What are people going to buy there -- mice? Microsoft has always made outstanding mice.
Now, picture yourself going into the bank with a business proposal: "I'm going to sell computer mice. No, just one brand. And ergonomic keyboards. And I'm going to draw people into the store by staffing it with dozens of expensive MCASes offering free tech support." What do you think they're going to say?
More...
What's going to hurt Microsoft's server position in the long run isn't Apple, it's some unknown party (maybe the next generation of Google Docs) wiping out their Office cash cow, plus maybe iPhone, Blackberry, or Palm figuring out how to destroy the Windows desktop. Then pick off the server apps in the browser, and suddenly Microsoft doesn't have any products anymore. They turn into IBM.
Apple might play a role in this (with the iphone) but I doubt it. What I think is going to happen is the client device OS will just cease to have any importance at all. Not there yet, though. But I know that looking at OSes is the most boring thing in the world now, which doesn't bode well for Windows 7.
To the point of this article: even if there's a market for software in these MS stores, NO ONE is going to buy these server products there. Microsoft doesn't make phones. The fun-ness or coolness of XBOX doesn't make a bit of difference because people buy those at Walmart or Target, not expensive custom stores. The Zune, whatever its actual merits, is a dead duck. What are people going to buy there -- mice? Microsoft has always made outstanding mice.
Now, picture yourself going into the bank with a business proposal: "I'm going to sell computer mice. No, just one brand. And ergonomic keyboards. And I'm going to draw people into the store by staffing it with dozens of expensive MCASes offering free tech support." What do you think they're going to say?
23
@4:
Hey, I'd be thrilled if one of these "gurus" could explain to me how to turn off the goddamned "ribboned GUI" on Office 2007 products.
Hey, I'd be thrilled if one of these "gurus" could explain to me how to turn off the goddamned "ribboned GUI" on Office 2007 products.
24
Yeah, poaching is business. End of story.
I hate the idea that somehow Apple is not business or not materialism and product loyalty. Be loyal to the Apple brand, by all means, it's a great product. But please stop this idea that somehow the Apple/PC divide is of greater importance or meaning than the Pepsi vs. Coke debate of 1985. It's stupid, and I'm always shocked at supposedly hip, nonmaterialist Seattlites play this game.
I hate the idea that somehow Apple is not business or not materialism and product loyalty. Be loyal to the Apple brand, by all means, it's a great product. But please stop this idea that somehow the Apple/PC divide is of greater importance or meaning than the Pepsi vs. Coke debate of 1985. It's stupid, and I'm always shocked at supposedly hip, nonmaterialist Seattlites play this game.
26
@23, I assume that they will be contractually obligated to instead spend 45 minutes telling you how great they are, and that menus are old-fashioned, and look, it swells and ebbs when you mouse over it, and look! Isn't that meerkat cute? I have received one such demo already, looking forward to many more.
Because, you know, in many ways, Microsoft Bob never really went away.
Because, you know, in many ways, Microsoft Bob never really went away.
28
I don't understand why msft would be at all interested in hiring away Apple retailers-there is no commonality of product, sales or service skill sets. The sales/service skill sets are completely different-Apple sells tangible products-turn it on and does what it says on the outside of the box. Microsoft sells intangible products-products that may, with upgrade/patch/fix/refurbishment installed at no, or small, or gobs of money later, function nearly the way the box said they would...maybe.
Servicing a Microsoft product on any given PC, or network, is a question with a huge number of delta's, OEM's, patches, upgrades, drivers, devices, ad infinitum-where Apple's hardware control limits the possibilities to a manageable decision tree.
Business is all about competition - better product, better price, better service-I don't see Microsoft retail as having much chance in any of these basic categories.
Servicing a Microsoft product on any given PC, or network, is a question with a huge number of delta's, OEM's, patches, upgrades, drivers, devices, ad infinitum-where Apple's hardware control limits the possibilities to a manageable decision tree.
Business is all about competition - better product, better price, better service-I don't see Microsoft retail as having much chance in any of these basic categories.
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