“On the day that Microsoft announced the grand opening of a retail store one door away from the Stanford (N. Calif.) Apple mini-store, there is confirmation that the Apple store will eventually pull out, and move into a full-size space about 500 feet away in the same mall,” Gary Allen reports for ifoAppleStore.
“The double-move demonstrates Microsoft’s strategy to directly confront Apple as it expands its retail chain, and Apple’s intention to expand or renovate its targeted stores to maintain a balance of power,” Allen reports. “Today Microsoft said its Stanford store will open April 19th, attended by former NFL player Jerry Rice, and followed two days later by a Maroon 5 music concert. Tickets to the concert will be given out during the Microsoft store grand opening.”
MacDailyNews Take: Free concert tickets are the only way Microsoft can generate fake crowds for their fake stores.
Allen reports, “Last year tipsters said the Stanford store would move into the former spaces of Williams-Sonoma and two other smaller retailers, occupying about 8,400 square-feet. A lease plan now shows ‘Apple’ in the new space.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
Took a whole lotta tryin’,
Just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues…Well we’re movin on up…
We finally got a piece of the pie.
MS management and employees are the butt of jokes regarding these so called MS Stores. People who walk by snicker and just laugh at this whole stupid effort from MS. LOL…. Pathetic!!!
MSmanagement
Once Apple leaves this side of the mall with the Microsoft Store will resume it’s normal cricket concert. It’s a wonder why more Microsoft Store employees don’t kill themselves more often out of self-loathing and realizing you’ve hit bottom. I mean you gotta have no self-respect to work in a place like the MS Snore, err, Store. Only thing it’s good for is to catch a few winks in all the peace and quiet.
Hey, it’s a great job for lazy bastards who want to collect a paycheck for doing absolutely nothing!
It has to be a good strategy for Microsoft. There is a lot of foot traffic near an Apple Store.
… waking pasts not sales.
Like Archie said: yoooz’ll see…
OMG!!! Apple is, like, so totally screwed!!! Sell AAPL!!!…
A moron 5 concert?
Between this insane retail strategy and the kludgy mess that is Windows 8, it really seems like Microsoft has a death wish. They are working almost as hard as RIM to commit corporate suicide.
Buh-bye, MS.
If you can;t make decent products, be devious and scheming. Microsoft is a sick company.
Pathetic is more like it.
That really is sick.
I wish MS woud open a retail store in France, just so I could ignore it.
Ignore it with a casual disdain…
You’re talking about a French guy – “casual disdain” is as French as Bordeaux wine.
they would get more traffic in bora bora
Plus Jerry Rice? I’d stop by just to get his list of local massage parlors. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1998/02/27/NEWS13187.dtl
And when people walk into this MS hall of horrors and collect their free goodies, they’ll rush to the Apple store for therapeutic relief.
Or go home and take a shower (shudder)
one of those Karen Silkwood Kerr-McGee powershowers®.
While the current Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Center is really like a small closet, they have conducted classes under some beautiful shade trees near flowing water and a fountain. We took an iPad class there and enjoyed it very much. However, it will be nice to go into a much bigger store and be away from Microsoft.
Now, tell me that Balmer will show up and be the main attention shouting “Developers, developers, ahhh…Oh!, Customers, Customers, Customers.”
Then once Balmer, the rock show and freebees are finished off, Balmer is long gone and the MStore looks like a graveyard.
That’s the first I heard that Apple is moving to a new location at the Stanford Shopping Center. At the same time, they’re moving the one on University to the old Z Gallery location. That’s going to be two new full sized stores less than a mile from each other.
I remember Maroon 5 had a free performance at the Apple Store in SOHO some time around 2008.
It is funny how Micro$ucks is 4 years behind and not so much creative as they are copying what Apple does… It is one thing to be #2 but it is another knowing that you are only #2 because you are just blindly trying hard to follow the #1.
It’s like the stalker moving next door only to discover you moved first.
Of course once Apple moves they’re banking on people thinking they’re Apple since they’re in almost the same spot… That’s funny right there.
LMFAO!
How many concert goers are going to go next door to Apple?
Wow – no more Maroon 5 for me. Had no idea they could be such mindless shills. This really tarnishes their brand in my mind.
Microsoft is totally ignorant. Why build near an Apple store and have your customer’s walk by a superior product? Plus, risk that customer walking in to compare. Bold? No, “Ignorance is Bliss!”
So, MS builds a store … So, what innovative products will I find in that store? …. None! … So, why bother?
I’ve been to a Microsoft store.
It’s always so quiet, and peaceful. I go there when I want to be completely alone.
Oh yeah. Thats what I felt there. It’s like being inside a Sensory Deprivation Chamber. 😉
To paraphrase, Microsoft’s strategy is to “Skate to where [Apple] was, not where they will be.”
You nailed it. That’s all MS has to offer. The great thing is that after a decade of Apple offering superior products the American public has finally figured it out.
Microsoft isn’t even on the same rink.
You guys have no imagination. The MS stores are an excellent source of entertainment. Go into any store and ask them to demonstrate Metro and how to…
1. Add apps to the Task Bar (clue, nothing like dragging into the Mac’s Dock).
2. Delete apps from the Task Bar. (See #1 above)
3. Searching for a PDF with a certain term inside of it. (Nothing like Spotlight).
4. And the ultimate Metro demonstration for hours of fun… ask how to shut down their computer. Seriously. And you thought shutting down by clicking on “Start” was bizarre.
(Or you can just Google these if you don’t want to head down to the mall.)