But really — I wonder if the staff at this ‘marketing’ firm will get fired because of the embarrassing leak of something of this magnitude, the shoddy English/spelling/grammar or the fact that they can’t even spell ‘Project Natal’ correctly?

First, Microsoft invented Surface. Now Microsoft is building a showcase for Surface. Don’t think of a Microsoft stores as a place to sell Windows and Office. Think of it as a place to show off a revolutionary marketing concept: Surface!

Yes, Microsoft is stealing from Apple, but what is it that they are really stealing? They are stealing the idea that: if you have a revolutionary product that requires vision to sell and existing retailers aren’t up to the task, then build your own stores and sell it yourself. Best Buy and CompUSA were not very good at promoting the “different” that is the Macintosh. Solution: the Apple Stores. So far, no one has really embraced the Microsoft Surface, and created the “killer app”. Solution: the Microsoft Stores. Apple had something that drew people to their stores on day one, and that continues to draw: “insanely great” products, in their words. I doubt that Microsoft will be able to draw people in to see Surface. They will need that “killer app”.

It’s a classic chicken-egg problem. You need a venue to showcase ideas, and you need ideas to draw people to the venue. In addition, you need a continuing stream of fresh ideas to keep people coming back. Is Surface “all that” Microsoft thinks it is or can be. Fortunately, for Microsoft, they have money to gamble – unlike Apple past, which almost had to bet the bank on every play. They even have the capital to draw people into their store once. If Surface works like Microsoft hopes, Microsoft could end up with Apple’s “problem”: people copying them. Difference is, that’s exactly what Microsoft wants, lots of companies building stores utilizing Surface.

Apple found a new way of designing the retail store. It would be nice to see Microsoft find another way, rather than just copying Apple’s lead.

The stores are fundamentally different– Apple sells hardware, and Microsoft sells software. Apple stores sell M$ software, probably M$ will have some samples of Apple hardware in their store– Macs can run Windows, after all.

I think the gurus are doomed.

I dont really understand why Microsoft wants to get into this. All this will achieve is Windows users will have somewhere to go to complain/hopefully get their borked system fixed/get a refund/lose the will to live.

They will spend more time fixing peoples problems than selling new products, or should I say confounding peoples problems.