3 ms·

It isn't copied by other consumer electronics companies because none of them have the brand value of Apple. Microsoft tried the model with its own chain of stor

by paxys 1y ago

It isn't copied by other consumer electronics companies because none of them have the brand value of Apple. Microsoft tried the model with its own chain of stores but failed pretty quickly. Most tech is better suited for Best Buy-like megastores where shoppers can browse and try a bunch of products and brands in one go. And for phones (at least in America) most people still prefer to go to their carrier store. Go outside of tech though and the Apple Store experience is commonplace. Apple itself copied the concept directly from high end fashion houses.

dagmx 1y ago
Microsoft stores were abysmal. They felt like Best Buy without the convenience somehow. I went in to try the (then new) Surface Studio (the drafting table like AIO) and they couldn’t find the peripheral knob. But it kept triggering, but it turned out employees would mess around with customers by spinning it while they used it. Of course that’s just one store, but I walked by several and they all just looked depressing inside. Layouts felt about as poorly planned as a Best Buy or staples display, and even things as simple as lighting was harsher. It’s just not as simple as making a store. The store has to provide the right vibe, and Microsoft don’t understand vibe.
- leakycap 1y ago
  I expected they'd do better at the products with their own name on them, but I the MS Store near me didn't stock even most standard Surface devices Plus, IIRC their return policy on what they had in stock was worse than other PC retailers
  - sheiyei 1y ago
    You can trust Microsoft to make anything they touch suck. This has been a constant for decades at this point. Please give me contradicting examples, if they exist.
    - leakycap 1y ago
      My second job was somehow a cool job for a remote Microsoft office. The people I worked with REALLY tried and cared to deliver what the bigger MS office asked for, but the distributed nature of the organization combined with a lack of unifying vision made delivering something great almost impossible. Even with dedication, the result would be half-baked Wizards and ASP "solutions" that met the punch list requirements
    - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
      >You can trust Microsoft to make anything they touch suck. That's not entirely true. Microsoft is not just the Office and Windows 11 monolith of trash, but is made o dozens or even hundreds of small teams and silos, some making cool shit even though not all of them survived their niches or kept their quality. >Please give me contradicting examples, if they exist. Encarta, Visual Studio, the OG Xbox and 360, windows Phone 10, Zune, Surface Studio, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, AutoRoute, IntelliMice, trackballs and ergonomic keyboards, Kinect camera systems, Spot Watches, Hololens.
      - fortran77 1y ago
        A lot of Office is very good. Nothing beats Excel.
        IIsi50MHz 1y ago
        Excel is _very_ powerful, …and very buggy and inconsistent, in my experience. Refreshing a QueryTable object or ListObject that has the filldown option enabled to automatically copy formatting and formulæ to all cells in the same column of the object can cause all or part of the object's header row to be copied into the body of the object. There are workarounds of varying ease and varying reliability. There's still no visible indication whether an edit box that accepts cell references or formulæ is currently in the mode where using the arrow keys inserts cell references and has no undo stack, or is in the mode where it acts like a normal textbox. The security model still allows a user to specify that sorting and autofiltering a locked worksheet is allowed, but does not actually implement it. Trying to use those features on a locked sheet fails with a permissions error. Similarly, if a formula returns an array, you cannot use Autofilter or right-click->Sort. Even if the array is 1-dimensional (and thus, your action applies to the entire array), Excel complains that you cannot modify part of an array. There's a workaround, that amounts to re-implementing both Autofilter and Sort using lambda(), let(), and parameter cells. Excel doesn't like to switch reliably between sheets that aren't at the same zoom level, sometimes drawing one of them at the previous's sheet's zoom…but using blurry upscaling. Or sometimes just stops drawing part a sheet or parts of the UI, requiring Excel to be relaunched. The web version is really a completely new spreadsheet …with unfortunately the same name as the desktop application. They have different bugs, and different features. They have too many kinds of add-ins, each with a different management interface, and too many scripting languages. Actually, the mere number of them wouldn't be a problem…if they all worked both in desktop and on the web. As is, there's no way to script the two Excels that guarantees function in both the online and offline applications. Some of types of add-in or scripting actions can be implemented with lambda(). …Euh…I could go on for far-far too long. (^_^);
- NetOpWibby 1y ago
  About a year after the Apple Store opened on Boylston Street in Boston, a Microsoft Store popped up across the street in the Prudential Center. I only ever went in to get a replacement for my Microsoft Arc Mouse that I used with my MacBook (LOL). It was a funny store because the employees felt like it was their moral duty to be the antithesis to Apple...which didn't make sense because the Apple Store had bigger crowds than they did, and that's even after Microsoft added an Xbox play area. Anyhoo, they shuttered pretty quickly (Apple Store is still there, of course).
- jimmydddd 1y ago
  A friend worked at a window blinds company that decided to open up their own stores. They previously had display areas a Home Depot stores. They hired a women who had successfully rolled out stores for a fashion company, and was interesting to see all that goes into it. Deciding on potential locations, leasing the spaces, doing interior layouts, paint colors, lighting, displays. It's a skill set that you wouldn't normally think about.
- vineyardmike 1y ago
  > But it kept triggering, but it turned out employees would mess around with customers by spinning it while they used it. Oh man, that would have really set me off. What's the point of customer demos if the employees are going to ruin them? I, uniquely it seems, had a great experience with a Microsoft store. And it almost made me buy a surface studio, but a decade later, I've admittedly only ever upgraded my MacBooks... When I first went to the new Microsoft store near by university, I really wanted to try the Studios (I was an art minor; it seemed amazing to draw on). I ended up sitting there in the mall drawing on it for a few hours while my friends shopped. I apparently attracted a crowd, and the local employees called corporate to tell them. They asked for my number and I ended up getting a call from a Microsoft marketing employee asking to talk to me because they wanted to turn this "spontaneous mall moment" into a TV ad. I don't think an ad ever aired though.
socalgal2 1y ago
Yet they sell Apple at Best Buy
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

by paxys 1y ago

dagmx 1y ago

Microsoft stores were abysmal. They felt like Best Buy without the convenience somehow. I went in to try the (then new) Surface Studio (the drafting table like AIO) and they couldn’t find the peripheral knob. But it kept triggering, but it turned out employees would mess around with customers by spinning it while they used it. Of course that’s just one store, but I walked by several and they all just looked depressing inside. Layouts felt about as poorly planned as a Best Buy or staples display, and even things as simple as lighting was harsher. It’s just not as simple as making a store. The store has to provide the right vibe, and Microsoft don’t understand vibe.

leakycap 1y ago
I expected they'd do better at the products with their own name on them, but I the MS Store near me didn't stock even most standard Surface devices Plus, IIRC their return policy on what they had in stock was worse than other PC retailers
- sheiyei 1y ago
  You can trust Microsoft to make anything they touch suck. This has been a constant for decades at this point. Please give me contradicting examples, if they exist.
  - leakycap 1y ago
    My second job was somehow a cool job for a remote Microsoft office. The people I worked with REALLY tried and cared to deliver what the bigger MS office asked for, but the distributed nature of the organization combined with a lack of unifying vision made delivering something great almost impossible. Even with dedication, the result would be half-baked Wizards and ASP "solutions" that met the punch list requirements
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    >You can trust Microsoft to make anything they touch suck. That's not entirely true. Microsoft is not just the Office and Windows 11 monolith of trash, but is made o dozens or even hundreds of small teams and silos, some making cool shit even though not all of them survived their niches or kept their quality. >Please give me contradicting examples, if they exist. Encarta, Visual Studio, the OG Xbox and 360, windows Phone 10, Zune, Surface Studio, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator, AutoRoute, IntelliMice, trackballs and ergonomic keyboards, Kinect camera systems, Spot Watches, Hololens.
    - fortran77 1y ago
      A lot of Office is very good. Nothing beats Excel.
      - IIsi50MHz 1y ago
        Excel is _very_ powerful, …and very buggy and inconsistent, in my experience. Refreshing a QueryTable object or ListObject that has the filldown option enabled to automatically copy formatting and formulæ to all cells in the same column of the object can cause all or part of the object's header row to be copied into the body of the object. There are workarounds of varying ease and varying reliability. There's still no visible indication whether an edit box that accepts cell references or formulæ is currently in the mode where using the arrow keys inserts cell references and has no undo stack, or is in the mode where it acts like a normal textbox. The security model still allows a user to specify that sorting and autofiltering a locked worksheet is allowed, but does not actually implement it. Trying to use those features on a locked sheet fails with a permissions error. Similarly, if a formula returns an array, you cannot use Autofilter or right-click->Sort. Even if the array is 1-dimensional (and thus, your action applies to the entire array), Excel complains that you cannot modify part of an array. There's a workaround, that amounts to re-implementing both Autofilter and Sort using lambda(), let(), and parameter cells. Excel doesn't like to switch reliably between sheets that aren't at the same zoom level, sometimes drawing one of them at the previous's sheet's zoom…but using blurry upscaling. Or sometimes just stops drawing part a sheet or parts of the UI, requiring Excel to be relaunched. The web version is really a completely new spreadsheet …with unfortunately the same name as the desktop application. They have different bugs, and different features. They have too many kinds of add-ins, each with a different management interface, and too many scripting languages. Actually, the mere number of them wouldn't be a problem…if they all worked both in desktop and on the web. As is, there's no way to script the two Excels that guarantees function in both the online and offline applications. Some of types of add-in or scripting actions can be implemented with lambda(). …Euh…I could go on for far-far too long. (^_^);
NetOpWibby 1y ago
About a year after the Apple Store opened on Boylston Street in Boston, a Microsoft Store popped up across the street in the Prudential Center. I only ever went in to get a replacement for my Microsoft Arc Mouse that I used with my MacBook (LOL). It was a funny store because the employees felt like it was their moral duty to be the antithesis to Apple...which didn't make sense because the Apple Store had bigger crowds than they did, and that's even after Microsoft added an Xbox play area. Anyhoo, they shuttered pretty quickly (Apple Store is still there, of course).
jimmydddd 1y ago
A friend worked at a window blinds company that decided to open up their own stores. They previously had display areas a Home Depot stores. They hired a women who had successfully rolled out stores for a fashion company, and was interesting to see all that goes into it. Deciding on potential locations, leasing the spaces, doing interior layouts, paint colors, lighting, displays. It's a skill set that you wouldn't normally think about.
vineyardmike 1y ago
> But it kept triggering, but it turned out employees would mess around with customers by spinning it while they used it. Oh man, that would have really set me off. What's the point of customer demos if the employees are going to ruin them? I, uniquely it seems, had a great experience with a Microsoft store. And it almost made me buy a surface studio, but a decade later, I've admittedly only ever upgraded my MacBooks... When I first went to the new Microsoft store near by university, I really wanted to try the Studios (I was an art minor; it seemed amazing to draw on). I ended up sitting there in the mall drawing on it for a few hours while my friends shopped. I apparently attracted a crowd, and the local employees called corporate to tell them. They asked for my number and I ended up getting a call from a Microsoft marketing employee asking to talk to me because they wanted to turn this "spontaneous mall moment" into a TV ad. I don't think an ad ever aired though.

socalgal2 1y ago

Yet they sell Apple at Best Buy

deleted 1y ago

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