After pulling a page from Apple’s playbook with its plan to launch its own chain of stores this fall, Microsoft is calling on the expertise of one of the players who made its rival’s stores such a big hit.
The world’s biggest software company confirmed on Tuesday that it has hired former Apple exec George Blankenship as a consultant to advise on real estate, as it puts together its retail strategy.
Microsoft hasn’t said much about the stores since announcing them in February, but its chief operating officer last week came out with guns blazing, saying: “We’re going to have some retail stores opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall. Stay tuned.”
Blankenship oversaw real estate procurement at Apple in the early years of the company’s push into retailing. The Mac and iPhone maker opened its first store in 2001, and now has more than 200 locations around the world. Blankenship also spent more than a decade at Gap, where he worked on store location and strategy for the clothing retailer.
It’s still a mystery what Microsoft’s stores will look like, but the company’s “Retail Experience Center” at its Redmond, Washington headquarters might hold a few clues:
When it comes to Microsoft, you can count on one thing: Whatever they do will get plenty of scrutiny in on the wires, in newspapers, and across blogs. Think A-Rod or Brad and Angelina.
Last night, they announced plans to start opening retail stores, which generated a lot of attention (rightfully so, too). Here’s the plan, as Reuters put its:
The world’s largest software company, which also makes the Xbox video game console and the Zune digital music player, did not say how many stores it was looking to open, or when, or which of its products would be on sale.
That is to be decided by David Porter, a former DreamWorks Animation executive, which Microsoft named as its new vice president of retail stores.
Turner, a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc manager, will report to Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner.
The long-rumored move to open stores comes as consumer spending is under severe pressure due to the recession, which has already pushed electronics chain Circuit City into bankruptcy. A similar attempt by computer maker Gateway to open its own stores some years ago was not successful.
As you would expect, plenty of others weighted in on the story. Here’s a sampling…
If done right, Microsoft might be able to show consumers the benefits (if any) of having a Windows computer, Xbox 360, Windows Mobile phone, and Zune, all in one place. At very least, they could do a better job than Best Buy at showing off PCs. (We’re not sure how well the gurus Microsoft hired last fall to do that at other big-box stores worked out.)
Conceivably, they might convince more people to buy PCs — or at least to buy newer PCs with Windows 7.
“This is, of course, ripe for mockery, and we’re sure tomorrow will bring the fruits of Photoshop contests from around the web. Will it be wall-to-wall Vista boxes? Will you have to sign a license agreement to get in? Will they avoid the color “BSOD blue”? All very funny questions, but the fact is that Microsoft’s stores could be the beginning of… well, another beginning for the oft-maligned software baron. After all, despite what the web has to say, they do manufacture more than error screens.”
The Wall Street Journal notes the poor results of other tech companies looking to move into retail:
“The failures of other stores opened by technology companies will loom over Microsoft as it launches its stores. In 2004, computer maker Gateway Inc. shuttered a network of more than 188 company-owned retail stores after weak sales. Microsoft itself operated a Microsoft store inside a movie-theater complex in San Francisco beginning in 1999, but two years later shut down the store — which showcased, but didn’t sell, Microsoft products.”
“We can’t wait to see how the Simpsons mock this one.”
Keep an eye on:
Live Nation Inc expects to beat Wall Street’s forecasts for fourth quarter adjusted operating profit when it posts earnings next month and said 2009 summer concert ticket sales are running ahead of the same period in 2008 (Reuters)
YouTube, the hugely popular online video site, has renewed a global licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment which allows it to continue showing music videos of artists like Beyonce and Avril Lavigne (Reuters)
Google Inc has abandoned its efforts to sell advertising for broadcast radio stations, acknowledging that the three-year project has failed (Reuters)
Clicks-and-mortar, PC-to-TV, T-Commerce. These are technology industry ideas that are resuscitated every couple of years only to fade into obsolescence.
In the case of the latter, T-Commerce, or Television Commerce, the ability to click a remote and buy something that has appeared on television has seen its fair share of restarts over the last two to three decades. Big players from Time Warner to Barry Diller have tried it and failed. Forrester’s Josh Bernoff once called the concept buying “Jennifer Aniston’s sweater.”
Now digital video recorder technology maker TiVo and online retailer Amazon.com are the latest to give it a go. The idea is the same — Watch, Click, Buy. The experience might even be easier this time around. For starters, consumers are starting to get comfortable with the idea of interacting with on-screen cues, like clicking on ads on TiVo to watch, say, a longer BMW commercial. Consumers are also pretty comfortable with shopping on Amazon these days.
Making all this work this time around could be the conversations advertisers have with program producers. Branded entertainment or product placement — Ford sponsoring NBC’s “Knight Rider”, for example – is commonplace these days. It’s not hard to see how collaboration among TiVo, advertisers and programmers could make this work.
Enabling screen overlays during a program to hawk what’s on the show would require nothing more than a deeper conversation between advertisers, programmers and networks, TiVo’s director of broadband services Evan Young tells us. These conversations are going on, he says.
The only catch? TiVo’s only got about 4 million subscribers and the company tell the New York Times its growth is no longer really in that business anymore. Problem is that’s where most of their revenue is generated.
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