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These Two Photos Show What a Disaster Microsoft Is Today

 

Steve Ballmer is chief executive officer of Microsoft. He's been in the job for some time, but he recently announced that he's stepping down. The fact that Ballmer's departure was announced without the simultaneous announcement of a successor is a good indication he was pushed out the door by the board of directors. And these photos taken Sunday around noon at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in Arlington, Va., show why.

 

Here's the Microsoft Store:

 

MicrosoftStore2.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlar

 

This is not a trick of the camera. There were zero shoppers in the store. At noon. On a Sunday in December at peak retail shopping season.

And here's the Apple Store:

AppleStore2.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge.j

It is crowded.

Of course Microsoft operated for many years as a fantastic company without any retail stores at all, so it's not as if the failure to build successful stores is the problem per se. The real issue is that there's nothing wrong with the store. It's a great place to shop. Much better than the Apple Store, really, because the Apple Store is crowded, and it's a little hard to get an employee's attention. At the Microsoft Store you get a very pleasant physical environment and a helpful staff. It's just that nobody wants to buy their stuff.

It's still a very profitable company thanks to its enormous strengths in the enterprise market. But enterprises are made of people. If nobody wants to buy Microsoft's stuff, that will trickle up into the enterprise.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/12/09/microsoft_store_pentagon_city_is_empty_on_a_pre_christmas_saturday.html

 

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I need a MSFT store display to hang up on my wall. Not enough tiles. 

 

Seriously, though, they don't need a clusterf*** store full of people to be doing something right. Microsoft still makes a living off third party retailers, and other sales. 

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The leaked 12 days of christmas deals at the stores (and the limit on the door buster qty's) probably didn't help too much. 

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I need a MSFT store display to hang up on my wall. Not enough tiles. 

 

Seriously, though, they don't need a clusterf*** store full of people to be doing something right. Microsoft still makes a living off third party retailers, and other sales. 

My nephew works at the place where they make fibroglass Microsoft signs and the tables they put in the Microsoft store area in retail, he's gonna try to buy one for a Xmas present for me :)

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Apple is monkey see monkey do. That is why there are so many shoppers at the Apple store.

 

That sounds good but it's false. I'm a Microsoft person, but reality is what it is. Here's an example of why the MS store is empty and Apple is full.

 

In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

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That sounds good but it's false. I'm a Microsoft person, but reality is what it is. Here's an example of why the MS store is empty and Apple is full.

 

In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

 

Um. Ok. You do know they have music detecting capabilities built right into the OS, right? I can then purchase the music, save it to Skydrive, and have it accessible to my devices. 

 

post-420821-0-15741700-1386704715.png

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Check the dumpsters behind the mall. I'm sure they'll be showing up there soon enough.

 

 

\Right. Because MIcrosoft stores are closing up left and right...  (N)

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In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

SoundHound has been around for a while now for Windows Phone. Not available (yet) for Win 8, but again there are alternatives, including one built in.
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That sounds good but it's false. I'm a Microsoft person, but reality is what it is. Here's an example of why the MS store is empty and Apple is full.

 

In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

 

You can do that with Windows. No need for a third-party application like SoundHound either.

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That sounds good but it's false. I'm a Microsoft person, but reality is what it is. Here's an example of why the MS store is empty and Apple is full.

 

In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

 

 

Actually, do this also for the Android system...I switched and I love my note2 device, but damm, it sucks not being able to use something similar with iTunes with it.  Kies sucks, and doesnt syncs files properly.

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If all those folks are in the Apple store because they all need warranty "Genius" support, then I'd say Microsoft is doing a pretty good job :).

Yeah, you just tell yourself that if it makes you feel better.

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Actually, do this also for the Android system...I switched and I love my note2 device, but damm, it sucks not being able to use something similar with iTunes with it.  Kies sucks, and doesnt syncs files properly.

 

I tried HTC's app, but it was just a waste of time. Otherwise I would probably be on an HTC One. My preference is probably a Zune-like client for Windows 8 that syncs WP8 and Surface. But it's just not happening. I leave iPhone, but always end up back.

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The apple store near me is usually just filled with kids playing with the ipads and computers.  I dont see people actually buying anything, usually just genius support and killing time.  Ive never gone into an MS store so I cant compare

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I tried HTC's app, but it was just a waste of time. Otherwise I would probably be on an HTC One. My preference is probably a Zune-like client for Windows 8 that syncs WP8 and Surface. But it's just not happening. I leave iPhone, but always end up back.

Very easy to do on ANY Android phone with Google Now capabilities - just use Google Now to come up with song results, you can buy it via Google Play Music, then add it to playlists (if you want). Since Google Play Music is a cloud based service, you don't need to sync any device...

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Very easy to do on ANY Android phone with Google Now capabilities - just use Google Now to come up with song results, you can buy it via Google Play Music, then add it to playlists (if you want). Since Google Play Music is a cloud based service, you don't need to sync any device...

 

1) I did not like Google Play. When I tried to live with Android, I used third party players, my fav was Cloudskipper.

 

2) More importantly, I have a huge personal library or rips and remixes (30GB) that I want to listen to at 320kbs or 192kbs. I imagine most hardcore Apple users can put that library to shame. My music needs are too dynamic for streaming services or the cloud. It's a key part of my daily workout. Nothing comes close to what Apple is doing. Zune did, but MS has chosen to drop that for WP8 and Tablets. Their solution is to buy Xbox Music Pass and limit yourself to what is available there, or do it manually. Apple has chosen to maintain iTunes and it's easy local media management/syncing along with it's cloud offerings.

 

Apple has its flaws and I'm not interested in OS X or it's desktops, though the newest Mac Pro is cooler than #@#%. I don't want one, but it's cool. What Apple does well, it does better than anyone else. Syncing media quickly, easily, pleasantly and as transparently as possible between your desktop and mobile devices is one of them.

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So what, on when hour was that first photo taken anyway? Before the shop opened? Anyway, the difference between Microsoft and Apple is very important if you want to compare those pictures, because Microsoft has a lot, if not, a sh*tload of third party vendors and doesn't need to sell everything themselfs. Apple products are mostly only available (available, not possible to buy) at Apple stores.

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If all those folks are in the Apple store because they all need warranty "Genius" support, then I'd say Microsoft is doing a pretty good job :).

 

They're not... see comment below:

 

Apple retail stores are extremely profitable. 

 

Exactly! If Apple stores were only giving out free Genius tech support... they wouldn't be making any money.

 

Clearly they are doing something right!

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That sounds good but it's false. I'm a Microsoft person, but reality is what it is. Here's an example of why the MS store is empty and Apple is full.

 

In the gym, I can Soundhound a song I hear playing with my iPhone 5S. I can tap a button twice and purchase and download it with my fingerprint for pw, quickly and easily add it to playlists and be playing in less than 5 minutes max, never mission a bit of my workout. I can go home, plug it in to it's' cradle and sync it to my desktop and iPad. With iTunes I can quickly drag and drop it to several other playlists, and it will sync and I'm good with my new songs wherever I go, on the device I want, on my playlists, with very little effort.

 

Do that with a Surface, WP8, & Windows 8.1 Desktop.

You've a prety good point, with Windows, it's completely different... we don't need 3rd party apps, nor do we need another program then the actual OS to sync our stuff.

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1) I did not like Google Play. When I tried to live with Android, I used third party players, my fav was Cloudskipper.

 

2) More importantly, I have a huge personal library or rips and remixes (30GB) that I want to listen to at 320kbs or 192kbs. I imagine most hardcore Apple users can put that library to shame. My music needs are too dynamic for streaming services or the cloud. It's a key part of my daily workout. Nothing comes close to what Apple is doing. Zune did, but MS has chosen to drop that for WP8 and Tablets. Their solution is to buy Xbox Music Pass and limit yourself to what is available there, or do it manually. Apple has chosen to maintain iTunes and it's easy local media management/syncing along with it's cloud offerings.

 

Apple has its flaws and I'm not interested in OS X or it's desktops, though the newest Mac Pro is cooler than #@#%. I don't want one, but it's cool. What Apple does well, it does better than anyone else. Syncing media quickly, easily, pleasantly and as transparently as possible between your desktop and mobile devices is one of them.

The Google Play Music has gotten a lot better. 

 

I have about 40 GB of music in 320Kbps, and Google Play Music has an option to allow playing for 320Kbps. I don't keep any media on my Nexus 5, and streaming works perfectly at full quality. If you can't stream it, there's an option to keep media on your device. It is far better than managing a local library - who wants to maintain a playlist and sync it to all devices, too much work. I was very skeptical of cloud based systems, but Google Play Music has knocked it out of the park for me. I find Google Play Music far more transparent than a local iTunes/media solution. Besides, iTunes on Windows is the most bloated piece of software. I use other alternatives to sync an iPod Touch

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