Microsoft Heading for Retail?

Microsoft Corp. has made a bold move in a bid to stay in touch with major competitors Apple Inc. It has hired a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive to aid the company in opening its own retail stores. This proves a strategy shift that borrows from the playbook of rival Apple Inc.

In a statement, Microsoft said their first priority for the former exec., will be to define where to place the Microsoft stores and when to open them. The company's current plans are for a "small number" of stores.

It remains to be seen whether the effort can add some sparkle to Microsoft's unfashionable image. They are hoping create a "world-class shopping experience" for the company's customers.

The move is a sign of the deeper role consumer-technology companies are playing in the retail business, despite the many risks of straying from their core original businesses of making hardware and software. Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., faced widespread doubt when it first lauched its retail chain in the early millenium. Now, eight years down the line, Apple's chain of more than 200 stores around the world are widely credited with helping the company boost sales of its Mac, iPod and iPhone product lines. The Apple stores, with their eye-catching architecture, highly-trained sales staff and "genius bars" that provide technical support, gave Apple a way to showcase its products in an clean environment.

Like its fierce competitor Apple, Microsoft is set to open its own retail shops.
Microsoft has long flirted with the idea of doing its own store. In a 20,000-square-foot warehouse near its campus in the suburbs of Seattle, Microsoft has tested various retail concepts, complete with shelves displaying Xbox games and big computer monitors with touch-sensitive screens.

One task will be to figure out whether to actually sell computers rather than just simply show off their features.....watch this space!!