Is Microsoft Store just a cheap Apple Store rip-off?
Yesterday, Black Friday 2009, I drove 70 miles north from San Diego to Mission Viejo, Calif. My goal: To answer that question. In October, Microsoft opened two retail outlets, in Arizona and California, that do remind of Apple Store.
Context & Ripple Effects
This visit closes a loop Microsoft opened over the summer: the company announced in July it would open stores in Arizona and California, deliberately sited near existing Apple Store locations, and by August the first mall buildouts were already being photographed as they went up. Opening in October meant the stores hit their first real stress test on Black Friday 2009 — the biggest foot-traffic day of the year.
The question BetaNews asks is the one the whole rollout turns on: whether Microsoft has built a retail channel or merely cloned Apple's. That distinction matters because Microsoft enters retail from a different position than Apple did — the coverage notes it holds near-monopoly status in software while facing nimbler competitors, so a costly physical channel is a bet that direct customer contact defends that position.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's two new stores put its Windows 7 lineup — $120 for a Home Premium upgrade up to $320 for a fully licensed Ultimate edition — on display within walking distance of Apple's shelves, inviting side-by-side comparison during the holiday quarter.
- Every review of the format will now be graded against the Apple Store rather than on its own terms, making 'imitation' the frame Microsoft has to overcome before the stores can be judged a success.
Second-order effects
- If the format proves out, Microsoft takes on permanent leasing, staffing, and merchandising costs that its licensing-driven model never carried — a structural expense for a company whose incumbency was built on cheap distribution through other people's shelves.
- Apple gains a live benchmark next door: whatever foot traffic the Microsoft Stores draw validates the flagship-retail playbook Apple pioneered, and both chains end up bidding for the same premium mall space and the same holiday shoppers.
Third-order effects
- If the early stores hold, the pattern points toward vertical integration spreading beyond Apple: the dominant software vendor absorbing a retail cost structure to control how consumers meet its products, reshaping the PC industry's traditional OEM-and-big-box distribution chain.
- Mall landlords are the quiet beneficiaries — a second major tech brand competing for anchor-adjacent space gives shopping centers pricing power over both tenants, though whether Microsoft sustains the rollout past these two pilots is exactly what the rip-off debate leaves unresolved.
The trend: Consumer technology vendors are following Apple into owned retail, trading low-cost licensing distribution for direct control of the buying experience.