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Microsoft Store in Danbury Fair Mall Is No Apple Store By Tom Keating Chief Technology Officer and Executive Editor
 The new Microsoft Store had its grand opening in Danbury Fair Mall recently and I wanted to check it out. I happened to be in the Danbury Fair Mall to (ironically) visit the Apple Store to have my busted iPhone replaced. [Side note - none of the Apple (News - Alert) Store employees had ever seen my shaking screen problem and they were all oohing and ahhing over the oddity.] Anyway, after getting my iPhone (News - Alert) replaced I headed over to the Microsoft store, which had just opened a couple weeks earlier. I fully expected the Microsoft Store to be a cheap knockoff or clone of the Apple Store and to smirk at the audacity of Microsoft (News - Alert) copying Apple's retail idea. As soon as I walked through the door my immediate impression of the Microsoft Store was 'Wow, this is no Apple Store.' My next thought was, 'It's better.' The Apple Store has this clean simplistic design with lots of white and clear plastic, but it lacks the fun factor and has this almost cold, hospital, sterile-like atmosphere. I found the Microsoft Store to be warm, fun, and futuristic. The store has huge flat screen displays lining the walls that are perfectly recessed into the wall so they don't stick out even one inch. In front of some of these displays are Xboxes and Kinects to allow visitors to play video games. While I saw some kids jumping and laughing playing a Kinect game I couldn't help but wonder if they were loud in the Apple Store. I imagined the Apple Store employees and indeed the Apple customers themselves would turn to the laughing kids and shush them like a librarian would do in a library and thinking to themselves, 'Hush children. This is hollowed Apple ground. Would you be rowdy in a church?' While I may exaggerate the the serious 'feel' of the Apple Store compared to the Microsoft Store, there definitely is a more of a business-type atmosphere in the Apple Store while the Microsoft Store was more fun. I checked out the large displays around the store and saw computers, Xboxes, Windows Phone (News - Alert), tablets, etc. Alas, no early Microsoft Surface tablet to play with.  In the middle of the store is the Answer Desk with a glass wall behind it to separate the front and rear of the store. Interestingly, the store actually extends out into the mall where there was some chairs, table, and a large screen with a Xbox and Kinect hooked up, allowing customers to play games just outside the store away from any potential sales pressure inside the store. Though when I was in the store I wasn't approached by any of the Microsoft employees. Perhaps the reason was I whipped out my newly minted Apple iPhone and started taking photos and video of the store? You can check out a 360 degree view of the store in this video here: Read more here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft/microsoft-store-in-danbury-fair-mall-is-no-apple-store.asp. |