This is just downright cartoonish. In an attempt to stay relevant, Microsoft, as you’re probably already aware, has been at work opening a chain of retail stores to do battle in the IRL with Jobs and Friends.
But this is perhaps no bigger a pissing contest than in the Mall of America, where Microsoft is opening a store less than ten meters away from the Apple Store – directly across the hallway.
I’d really like to see how this turns out. The new Microsoft store is utterly enormous (as you’ll see in the video below), and it will be interesting to hear tell of how – or if – Redmond’s presence affect’s Apple’s sales.
I can see it now: Apple’s ‘Geniuses’ folding their arms and glaring across the hallway at Microsoft’s … ‘Experts’, or whatever they end up calling their employees (do they already have a name?), who glare back in kind. What I’d really like to see, though, is all sorts of Spy Vs. Spy shenanigans happening between the stores. If life were only like that.
So what’s the word? Does MS’s third-party offerings stand a chance against Apple’s walled-garden glitz? Personally, I think the me-too aura of this store project may hurt Microsoft a bit in the beginning, but what do I know – I haven’t been to the mall in weeks.
via Microsoft Gears Up For Head-To-Head Combat With Apple at the Mall of America | Techi.com.