On the surface, Microsoft's plans to establish a physical retail store in Canada appears a day late and a dollar short in light of rival Apple Inc.'s decade-old retail strategy. But then, what's wrong with being fashionably late to a party?
In the past 10 years, Apple has solidified the value of a bricks-and-mortar presence in our increasingly digital world. Which goes to show that traditional brand marketing in shopping malls and other consumer high-density areas (airport terminals for instance) is still an effective means to woo consumers to buy your stuff.
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Will Microsoft splash out on bricks & mortar?
That Microsoft didn't think of building retail outlets before Apple is irrelevant. But if it's going to try to compete with the mighty Macintosh dispensaries (totalling 360 stores globally at present), the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant best build some swank digs. Merely moving in to a record store's abandoned retail space and slapping on a fresh coat of paint won't cut it.
Microsoft does have stores stateside but they've been called 'pathetic'; a cheap knockoffs of all things Apple. If that proves to be the general opinion among consumers (discounting Apple fan boys and fan girls), things could get ugly for Microsoft's retail ambitions.
Retail competition good for tech sales
Nevertheless, it's refreshing to see Microsoft ratchet up its rivalry with Apple once again. The competition in the mobile operating system arena between the two will surely intensify as Microsoft's partners begin to increasingly introduce Windows-based smartphones and tablets. The retail outlets will surely add fuel to that fire.
Toronto will be the only Canadian city (initially) in the tech shopping mall wars. Rumour has it Yorkdale Mall in the city's north-end will soon house a Microsoft store but it could just as well land in the Eaton Centre, which is located downtown. Safe to say it'll be in a mall that hosts an Apple store.
With a goal of establishing up to 75 new Microsoft storefronts globally over the next couple of years, success may lie in how quickly the vendor can make that dream happen. One possible advantage a Microsoft store will have over Apple's is vendor variety: Microsoft's stores will sell Windows-based products from the likes of Hewlett-Packard and others. Another possible advantage: Lower priced hardware products and shorter line-ups.
That said, it won't be easy. Even an attractive, well-stocked Microsoft store armed with friendly, knowledgeable staff is unlikely to persuade Mac fans to duck in and buy something, but stranger things have happened in life.
Maybe Microsoft's brain trust expects too much.
But then, as Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, once said: "High expectations are the key to everything".
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