back to article Microsoft nails retail store logo and locations

Microsoft has locked down the logo for the planned retail stores it hopes will take a bite out of Apple's PC and phone business. The company has been awarded a trademark for the colored squares-within-squares logo that first popped up in a leaked presentation of a proposed layout for the stores. You can view Microsoft's …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Ah?

    Must have Binged it?

  2. Charles Manning

    Microsoft in a fashion center

    WTF?

    MS has never attracted any of the adjectives associated with fashion: trendy, cool, edgy,...

    This has got to add to the pile of wreckage that has typified Ballmer-era Microsoft: Zune, Bing,...

  3. h 6
    Happy

    Wow

    Thanks, El Reg, for including that apple store photo at the end. MS will never be able to match apple in customer experience.

  4. k98sniper
    Thumb Up

    Finally...

    My state makes it into the news for something other than the weather and illegal immigrants... Hopefully if I go in there it won't be swamped with pale-skinned Microsoft fan-boys.

  5. Mark Jonson

    So where's the list?!?

    I could care less about California. Where is the list of the other stores?

  6. El Mono Grande
    Dead Vulture

    @ k98sniper

    k98sniper...this is what you can expect at the MS Store:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/7/20/

    "Zuuuuuuuuuuune"

  7. Goat Jam
    Thumb Up

    Aaaaahh the fail

    I can smell it growing

  8. Robert E A Harvey
    Dead Vulture

    Yawn Yawn

    No empty shops in existing malls - shock horror.

    M$ does not buy retail fashion chain to evict them from leases - astonishment.

    Customer has to move instead of shops being on conveyor belt - outrage.

    New business does not emerge from egg fully matured and established - customers storm.

    Company I do not trust opens shops nowhere near me to sell products I do not want - Disinterest reported.

  9. Paul 131
    FAIL

    been there, done that...

    Come Zune to a Toilet near you!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank goodness the real world isn't like El Reg comments...

    Or there'd be constant pitched battles in that shopping mall between the Windows and Apple fanboys.

    It'd be iMac vs PC, Macbook vs laptop, iPod vs Zune and cock vs cock!

  11. RichyS
    Jobs Halo

    No comparison

    I think the two photos are very revealing of the two companies in question.

    Microsoft appear to have gone for a 'just good enough' generic shopping centre location; while Apple have gone the extra mile to produce a shop that is truly exceptional looking.

    And that seems to be MS's problem. For years they've been able to get away with an OS or an office suite that has been 'just good enough'. It's Apple's attention to detail and keen focus on being able to do a few things well rather than a lot of things badly (cf. iPhone to every Win Mobile out there), that is seeing Apple in the ascendancy, and Microsoft in severe danger of becoming an irrelevance in the consumer space.

    Oh well, it's amusing to watch them try...

  12. W

    MS & M&S

    That logo is pretty tragic

    And although the MS store is just a pic of some hoardings, everything about that pic just reeks of generic corporate shopping centre meh. Whereas the Apple store pic, with it's lighting and minimal zen landscaping looks like it's been lifted straight from the pages of an Architectural magazine.

    It would seem that comparing MS and Apple is about as valid as comparing M&S with Harvey Nichols. One has nailed aspirational marketing, the other is still struggling to come to terms with notion of style.

    But before the shrill shill accusations start to fly... I've never bought an Apple product and I've always bought my work trousers from M&S. :-P Maybe MS should hire Twiggy and Myleene Klass to zhjuzh up their image. Can't be any worse than their current PR efforts. And and it seemed to do the trick for M&S, after all.

  13. searlea
    WTF?

    Laptop hunters?

    Has Microsoft started making laptops?

  14. Stephen Moll
    FAIL

    Too fussy and lacks elegance...

    If the sketches and graphics on Gizmodo are anything to go by, MS are making the same mistake with their stores, that they make with their packaging. Anyone remember the spoof video where a Mac packaging box is MS'ified?

    There is far too much 'noise', clutter and information going onto the walls. This looks like it will divert attention from what should be the main focus of customer attention, that being the machines on show. I always thought that was the main point of an Apple store, not to stare at the walls, but simply get hands on with the kit and play with. The kit can then sell itself.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Why?

    So now we know. You'd go into a MS store to:

    • play on Windows 7 (which is like the Vista you have at home)

    • play on MS Office (exciting stuff)

    • play on a Zune (and be glad you bought an iPod)

    • play on a 360 (which you can do at virtually any other games shop)

    Odds for an Epic Fail have just shortened considerably.

  16. John Blagden
    FAIL

    Can't afford their own pics?

    Look at the presentation.

    In particular page six and the guy in the black t-shirt at the bottom.

    Notice anything?

    Microsoft were nearly nine years late in blatantly copying Apple's GUI with Windows 3, so they are speeding up somewhat.

  17. Graham Butler

    There is a closer Apple Store than the Scottsdale one

    Although it's still 5.8 miles away west - 2430 E Camelback Rd.

    Wonder if someone just saw the respective addresses on Camelback Rd and didn't really appreciate how bloody spread out Phoenix is :D

  18. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    @ Apple fanboy..

    "And although the MS store is just a pic of some hoardings, everything about that pic just reeks of generic corporate shopping centre meh. Whereas the Apple store pic, with it's lighting and minimal zen landscaping looks like it's been lifted straight from the pages of an Architectural magazine."

    Funny, our Apple store looks like the mobile phone shop, the Sony Centre, The TV shop, in fact pretty much every other bland electronics store in the shopping centre.. Hell McDonalds has more style about it.

    One trendy shop does not make a chain.

  19. Peter 39

    queue

    I'll bet the line for help at the Guru Bar (or whatever they finally call it) at Mission Viejo stretches past the front of the Apple store

  20. DRendar
    Flame

    @Mark Jonson

    Mark Jonson Posted Tuesday 11th August 2009 02:03 GMT " I could care less about California. Where is the list of the other stores? "

    AAARG!!

    It's COULDN'T care less, not COULD care less!!!

    That drives me frigging spare! What you said is the polar opposite of what you meant!

  21. W
    Thumb Up

    @@ Apple fanboy..

    You didn't really read the rest of my post properly before taking the bait, did you? Have another look.

    As for bringing Sony Centre s into this... I've yet to come across any Sony Centre that projects any image other than "this an expensive version of Richer Sounds". But, just like Apple gadgets, the Sony brand is something I avoid.

    Sony Centres are at the av geek end of a spectrum that has Apple at the chic accessory end. Which is ok if you like that kind of thing.

    And that's precisely my point. I don't buy Apple or Sony stuff cos I recognise that beyond the geek/chic frontage is a world of overpriced lock-in. Richer Sounds on the other hand...

    MS shouldn't have invited this on themselves by suggesting they'd go toe to toe with Apple.

    M&S would never claim that they're gonna directly square up to Harvey Nichols. They'd just resolve to do what they do, but better, and maybe throw a few decent enough adverts out there to bolster their position.

    Similarly, MS should just crack on with the job of opening some stores and making a decent enough job of it. Living up to grandiose promises is not their strength. Simply doing "most things well enough for most folk" is what they do best. They should leave the "some things done quite well" tactics to Apple.

  22. Michael C

    No Free Windows Support

    A lot of people ore going to be disenfranchised quickly as they bring their OEM PCs to see Microsoft reps for support of issues and find out microsoft charges a minimum $59 for consumer support on RETAIL OS versions, but all support for OEM products is done by the manufacturer. If you have a Dell or HP, and bring in to a microsoft store for help, minimum you'll pay $59 to talk to their "geek", posibly $99 to buy a Microsoft "token" while next door at Apple people are receiving training, getting help, and more, completely for free... Sure, if it's a "known" microsoft issue that there's a patch for, they'll refund your $59, but not until after they determine the problem is a covered problem... Most customers however would bring their PC in to simply be redirected to Dell support and told to bugger off.

    When they're passing buy the Apple store all pissed off, having not been helped, and some guy with a Mac waiting outside to get in the store (they're often crowded, and subject to saftey regulations, and they let people in only as fast as people leave, with a very high tech concierge system and friendly people), and tell the Mac guy "good luck, they'll probably charge you for support too." the Mac guy will say, "nope, i made an appointment, and they told me it's free, I don;t even have a waranty!"

    Then the concierge will say "would you like a tour? We'd be happy to show you a Mac to replace that Dell..." and Apple might win another customer. Regardless of price, a lot of disenfranchised customers will decide to simply buy from the competition to spite the original manufacturer... That, or they'll demand the $59 be compensated by Dell somehow. in the end, this can only work to ensure microsoft also starts offering completely free support in their storefronts, which then will have people from companies far and wide standing in line to have their business PCs fixed too, and rape microsoft for billions in service revenue profits.

  23. Paul Bruneau

    No one loves MS

    Their stores will be empty. People go to an Apple Store because they love Apple stuff. No one loves MS stuff. They might use it, they might be afraid of Apple, they might hate Apple, but they sure don't love MS.

  24. Gavin 6

    Open Source Store?

    Wherever microsoft & apple tread, linux is never far behind.

    I wonder how an Open Source shop would work?

    @DRendar - glad I am not the only one who gets annoyed by that. It seems to be an American thing, and is becoming more and more common :S

  25. W

    "I wonder how an Open Source shop would work?"

    The Co-Op?

  26. W

    Re: "COULDN'T care less, not COULD care less!!!"

    Agreed.

    "Couldn't" is short for "Could not". Simple as that.

    I really don't get how using the exact opposite can have the desired meaning when used in this situation. Can anyone USians enlighten us on this one? I've never heard it said aloud. Is there some kind of particular emphasis on one of the words that changes the obvious meaning of the words in their written form?

    Tangent: Adopting the USian tradition of removing non-spoken letters would mean that "couldn't" gets shortened to "cudn't". Or even, for some folk, "C---". But that'd only strengthen the feeling of the sentence, with it becoming "I, C---, care less"! :-)

  27. I didn't do IT.
    Welcome

    **** Care Less(tm)

    Where English (UK) and English (American) differ on this is from one of our colloquialisms, or way of talking. As Cockney has its rhyming slang, American has a way of expressing a point soooooo far that it circles right back around to mean the opposite. Like our politics, for example.

    This phrase is usually said _very_ sarcastically, as in "I am patronizing you, and "agreeing" with you just because you are a twit, and it will get you off my back".

    So, "I couldn't care less" about your issue, so go away and leave me alone; find somebody else to bother.

  28. Aaron 10
    FAIL

    Dell tried this...

    ...and failed.

    In Northpark Mall, Dallas, Texas, a Dell store opened across the hall from the Apple store. Several times, I walked by the Dell store (never in!) and the number of salespeople always outnumbered the customers.

    The Dell store is long gone now. Now it seems that Microsoft is trying the same thing. The Gateway store in Dallas is long gone too.

  29. Michael Overton

    Why, exactly are they so worried about Apple?

    I mean really. Apple has a less than 10% marketshare in the PC market, they're still a small player in the smartphone market, their income is less than Microsoft's typical PROFITS. I mean, what the hey? Maybe Microsoft should stop imitating everyone else and start making good products? Just a crazy idea I had...

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