Still can't get used to these Microsoft Stores. I should probably get over it, but every time time I see one, it strikes me that they're copying Apple in a really lame way.
Visiting UVillage in Seattle is bizarre. You get the Apple Store that we all know. And you get the Sony Style store which is like the Apple Store but overcomplicated and weird in that Sony way, with 3-D TVs and pink Memory Sticks. And now we have the Microsoft Store, directly across the parking lot from Apple, with exactly the same floorplan and layout, but made with chintzier materials and a distracting video wall and Surface table locked on to a nonsensical tower defense game. It's like Windows incarnate: an ugly copy of Apple design, with no comprehension of why the Apple design works.
Google should open a store too, and fill it with a bunch of free toys and cover the walls with third-party ads.
Google would have to open several different stores. They are all slightly different as the interior designer sees fit, and the plans for each are all several years outdated. Each store is several different stories tall, but some sections have been roped off and are in the process of being demolished--even though some people liked those parts. All the employees ask if you know other people who have been to the store, even though you don't use the Google store enough to care. Occasionally sales reps walk up to you and ask you if you want to buy a product tangentially related to something you were just thinking about (how did they know?); all you can do is shake your head and walk away until the next salesperson comes up to you. Overall you get the feeling that you'd rather be in and out of the store as quickly as possible.
Apple would not have a contest. They would say. This is our product. We think it's awesome. You should think it's awesome too. If you don't want to buy it, don't.
They wouldn't hold cheesy PR stunts to try and "prove" how much better they are.
I do recall a lot of aggrieved Windows fanboys complaining about them – and each time concluding that the problem was failing to understand the priorities of average users or how badly the traditional PC market had failed the average user.
The situation is quite similar today with spec-obsessed Android reviewers failing to understand why everyone else is buying iPhones because most people just don't care about an extra 100Mhz or .3" screen size difference when the trade-off is a carrier-mangled UI or worse apps.
Google should open a store too, and fill it with a bunch of free toys and cover the walls with third-party ads.