When I worked at Best Buy, we had a small kiosk for Apple branded products. It always stood out, because Apple styled things differently than anything else in our store. Also, the kiosk had a specially trained Apple representative. They were never really part of the team, but from what I remember did a decent enough job.

Apple has done quite a bit to expand their retail presence, by showing up in more stores, while opening up more stores on their own. Microsoft looks to start following this trend as they’ve announced plans to show up in more retail stores.

I’m left questioning as to how opening a chain of retail stores could benefit Microsoft? It make sense for Apple because nearly everything the provide is proprietary. Meaning that when you shop with Apple, everything that you need to get started is done through Apple. From hardware, down to software.

Microsoft has a different way of monetizing their business. They generally sell their OS for use in other vendors. There’s very few products that Microsoft can actually ’sell’ in a retail store. Granted, they have expanded with their Zune, and the gaming console, Xbox 360.

I think that Microsoft could find success by opening up a vendor system in already open retail stores. Much like the Apple kiosk I mentioned before. Since Microsoft relies on so many products used on other systems, just having a presence to provide customers with information would be a viable option. Plus, it would be funny to see an Apple rep, and Microsoft rep duke it out in the middle of a Best Buy.

[via: Cnet]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Microsoft has tried nearly every tactic in the book when it comes to advertising. They started out with comedy, and ended up just scaring people. They then moved to striking back against Apple, with their ‘I’m A PC’ campaign. Which was definitely better than the Seinfled/Gates comedy duo but still really didn’t drive any significant point across to the public. Things really got interesting when they brought in Eva Longoria. Alas, she had but one miniscule role in that commercial.

I think Microsoft has finally found something that works, in terms of advertising. Using adorable children to show off how easy Windows functions are to navigate. I think the strategy here is definitely the best Microsoft has implemented yet. You can’t help but smile when you watch Kylie make her picture of Dorothy better and send it to her family. Plus, the commercial actually shows a product in action and isn’t random people claiming that they’re PC’s or showing Bill Gates buy a pair of shoes at the mall.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=533e05d2-9f12-4a86-bdda-efd0455fcd36" target="_new" title="Kylie">Video: Kylie</a>

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Bill Gates has officially gone off the deep end. The question remains, were there actually mosquitoes in there or not? Either way, it’s still a pretty sick joke to bring up malaria and then release mosquitoes on the audience. And then make a joke about not only poor people should get the disease.

Bizarre indeed.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’m not sure what practical applications of this prototype from Microsoft would be? Perhaps you use the surface images for a cool presentation.

Of course, just because there might not be any real world use for Microsoft Secondlight doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing to watch.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!