Official Microsoft Stores Are A Genius Idea

I’ve seen a number of people “poke fun” at the idea of Microsoft opening up their own official stores and honestly I think it’s a brilliant move for Microsoft.  Microsoft needs to get out from the giant boulder that has been pinning them down for years now – the OEM’s (PC manufactures) and consumer electronic stores.  That’s right.  I’m calling them all out.  Dell, HP, Gateway, Best Buy, Circuit City (not anymore), every single one of them.  In the early days of computing all these OEM’s and consumer electronic stores behind Microsoft helped them tremendously, but in more recent years, they have only harmed Microsoft.

Microsoft, despite what many people believe (mainly due to Windows Vista), makes some really excellent products and pieces of software (Windows being one).  They also make some not so great products, but, you can’t win them all.  Nonetheless, what I’m getting at here is Microsoft will now have a direct line to the consumer with their own stores – no more middle man.  Now they will be able to show off their products to the fullest extent and not have to rely so much on third parties like Best Buy and Dell.  Honestly, who knows your product better than you?

They will have their own trained employees who can provide the same style of customer support and assistance to that of walking into an Apple store.  A true hands on marketing machine to show off features, products, and various other things to the consumer.  This is something Apple has enjoyed for years and what has really helped them grow and expand (especially during Microsoft’s Vista fiasco).  And now Microsoft will have the same luxury and that’s the way it should be.  It’s great for the consumer and it’s great for the industry.  Not only will you be able to go into both stores at your local mall, but, it will completely drive the competition level to a new extreme.

I personally think had these Microsoft stores been in place for Windows Vista, Microsoft’s headache would have been far less intense.  The problem with Vista wasn’t necessarily Microsoft’s for building a bad operating system, but rather that they built an operating system a bit ahead of its time.  People didn’t have the hardware to run it yet and they didn’t fully understand the new features in it.  If you don’t believe me, check out the Windows Mojave experiment.

These new Microsoft stores are just what Microsoft needs for their next wave and generation of innovation, products, and ideas.  I think we will be seeing Microsoft making a major comeback in popularity and these stores will be major factors.