I feel sorry for Microsoft. They sooooo want to be liked and be cool, it is painful to watch. Like the awkward, dorky kid who does all of the wrong things, they just want to fit in. The latest announcement that they will open stores like Apple is particularly telling. Instead of coming out with cool, innovative new products, they are trying desperately with advertising and now with retail stores to get the world to realize how cool they are.
“The purpose of opening these stores is to create deeper engagement with consumers and continue to learn firsthand about what they want and how they buy,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Who exactly is going to go into these stores and why?
Much like the Zune, this strategy of copying Apple is doomed to fail as well.
Here is a Wall Street Journal article link about the new stores: MSFT’s new stores
Couldn’t agree with you more. I was floored to hear Mr. Softee entering in the retail biz. They got to start innovating and being a leader rather than a follower.
Also, don’t forget the Xbox, MSN, MSNBC. Did I miss any others?
Aaron,
You’ve expressed admiration for Mohnish Pabrai before. What do you think of his thoughts on Microsoft, i.e., that if given the choice of buying Microsoft or Google stock, he’d buy Microsoft all day because Microsoft is a successful cloner, and cloning is a more reliable business than innovating?
I did not see his comments on Microsoft, do you have a link. That said, I humbly disagree with him. I think a successful cloner is not such a wonderful strategy in technology. Further, they haven’t successfully cloned anything in a long time.
I don’t have a link, but it’s on p. 136 of The Dhando Investor.
I think it has become very clear in the last two years, that MSFT has been a very poor cloner…And this is become definitively true for the last five years at least. Again, I respectively disagree with Mohnish.
I think you meant to write that you respectfully disagree, but point taken. He’s been wrong about plenty of things over the last two years, so perhaps he’s wrong about this one too. Time will tell.
true that. I write too fast sometimes.