Microsoft to do direct battle with Apple at Mall of America
A Microsoft retail store is coming to the Mall of America and — get this — it's directly across from one of Apple's famed retail stores. — Microsoft is a notorious imitator of all things Apple, and it's doing it again …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's retail push has been building for two years: it first signaled plans to open stores adjacent to Apple's in mid-2009 (Microsoft to open retail stores near Apple's this fall), leaked designs showed an Apple-style 'Answers Bar' answering the Genius Bar (Microsoft to copy Apple Genius strategy), and critics were already asking whether the format was a cheap rip-off by late that year (Is Microsoft Store just a cheap Apple Store rip-off?). Placing the new store directly across from Apple's at Mall of America makes the imitation explicit rather than incidental — and it lands weeks before sources say Microsoft will unveil its Windows 7 smartphone lineup on October 11 (still unconfirmed).
The stakes are visible in Microsoft's own numbers: CEO Steve Ballmer took half his maximum bonus in the company's SEC proxy filing over mobile-market struggles, while Bernstein Research pegs iPad adoption as the fastest of any consumer electronics device ever at roughly three million units in its first 80 days. The storefront is a bid for the kind of physical-brand presence that has fueled that gap.
First-order effects
- Apple's Mall of America store now faces a Microsoft showroom head-on, turning daily foot traffic and window displays into a side-by-side public comparison neither company controls.
- If the rumored October 11 Windows Phone 7 unveiling holds, Microsoft gains a flagship retail venue ready-made to demo the phones against iPhones sold meters away.
Second-order effects
- Mall operators gain leverage from the rivalry, with co-located competitor stores becoming a template other landlords can price up as brands fight for adjacency.
- Every future Microsoft store siting now gets judged against Apple's footprint, forcing Microsoft to keep opening locations near Apple's to sustain the format's credibility.
Third-order effects
- Consumer electronics retail is consolidating around vendor-owned flagship stores rather than third-party shelves, with store placement itself becoming a competitive weapon between platform holders.
- The pattern points toward retail real estate for top device makers being contested like ad inventory — scarce, premium, and priced on who your neighbor is.
The trend: Device makers are converting physical retail from a distribution channel into a direct branding battleground, with Microsoft deliberately replicating Apple's store playbook site-by-site.