

Ballmer is right: Microsoft should open more stores. - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2011/04/07/ballmers-right-five-reasons-why-microsoft-should-open-more-stores/

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pepitablue
The only reason I agree with this idea is because it'll finally give me access
to someone in Microsoft to complain about how much their products suck. I'd
call instead if it were only possible to find a phone number and get to speak
to someone even though none of my MS gear is under warranty. I know, it's not
fair to gripe to a lowly sales person or a customer service rep, and I
normally wouldn't be "that person", but their products, in my opinion, have
hit a new low of "unacceptable crap" rating.

I recently went to my local mall and saw one of their new stores. It's sad to
see how Microsoft has become a phantom of a company. Their store, predictably,
was two doors down from the Apple store. It was twice the space as if to show
them up and it was laid out in the same way. Like Apple they also used a brand
new picture logo, which unlike Apple's, failed to depict anything unique about
the identity of Windows.

Microsoft has become a Tully's to the Starbucks: copying instead of
contributing to the market something new and revolutionary. It's just sad. I
think it's clear due to the diminishing quality of their products and their
lack of real creative leadership when it comes to new products, that they
really are just a ghost of their former selves. Eastsiders (the folk who live
in Microsoft country) consistently seem to prefer Apple stores to the Window's
store at a mall just 6 miles down from MS headquarters. That has to be a bad
sign. I guess if they can't make it in technology-savvy markets, there's
always the technology-backward markets that Microsoft can rely on...

