Microsoft Retail Stores: Waiting for the Ribbon to Get Cut

(Taken from THIS Flickr artist.)

Microsoft has announced that they'll be launching a set of retail stores to "create deeper engagement with consumers and continue to learn firsthand about what they want and how they buy."

As I recall there WAS a Microsoft store in the Metreon in SF, Sony's sleek and bizarre shoopping experience that has lots of browsers but not lots of buyers. The challenge of a Microsoft retail environment is that the company focuses on software rather than hard goods, which are far more difficult to generate customer saliva over. Granted, a big chunck of the store will likely be games related but if it becomes a games dominant environment i think you'll find they have difficulty attracting the electronics early adopter.

I wish them well with this -- I think it will be fascinating to see what they come up with, and their retail selling experience may actually soften the lockstep approach to branding and brand presentation that (I think) limits the level of consumer connection to MSFT.

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