It's Too Early to Compare Microsoft and Apple Stores - PC Magazine

Many pundits assessed Black Friday sales of Microsoft and Apple stores, but it's premature to compare them.

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the Microsoft Store strategy, which is an exact copy of the Apple Store strategy, only different. And of course this assertion only makes sense to me.

Apple paved the way for what I've always thought of as a car dealership model for selling computers and accessories. Right now, Microsoft is limited by not having the line of computers that Apple has. In the car dealer analogy, Apple simply has more models and should thus do better in comparison. Microsoft is still establishing its presence and developing products to sell in its "showrooms."

So, I found it a bit unfair that various observers spent time eyeballing the stores on Black Friday to compare how crowded they were and how much sales they generated.

Nobody was stunned by the fact that the Apple Stores were more crowded than the Microsoft Stores. A Forbes post cited hard data gathered by some Piper Jaffray analysts that staked out by the two stores in the Mall of America. The procedure seemed shady, as Forbes reported: "Munster and his team were busy, spending 8 hours keeping an eye on the Apple Store in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, and two hours watching the Microsoft Store opposite it."

Somehow they concluded that there was 47 percent less foot traffic at the Microsoft Store. Well, if you are looking at one store for eight hours and the other store for two hours there would be less total traffic in the two-hour span, no? I tried contacting Piper Jaffray for an explanation but the company is not press-friendly, to say the least.

The Forbes reporter, on the other hand, embedded a clip of the two stores side-by-side and the Apple Store was more packed. Of course, the Apple Store also appeared to be smaller, but why mention these sorts of details? If the size of the stores was equal, I'd suspect that the Apple Store would be more packed for the simple reason that there is more to do and more to see. When Apple releases its TV set in time for next Christmas, there will be even more to do in its store.

These spies also noticed that iPads were selling like hotcakes while at the Microsoft Store, people only bought the Xbox 360. There was no mention of the Surface tablet whatsoever, which led me to believe it was not obtainable or who knows what. We were never told as everything in the piece leaned toward boosting Apple.

I've talked to various people about their experiences at both stores and most have no real beef with the Microsoft Stores. The Apple Stores, however, have been developing a mere mediocre reputation, as exemplified by the Yelp reviews of the Lone Tree, Colorado store that the Forbes reporter was dogging. The store is rated three and a half stars out of five, which is middling. It would probably be rated only three stars if the Mac mavens were not writing gushing, five-star reviews that are all prefaced with a stated unconditional love for the company.

The point is that judging the potential for the Microsoft Stores is premature. I'd like to see Forbes and Piper Jaffray revisit the same exercise this time next year. By then, things will have changed. Then again, if Apple has a TV set, the results may be the same. So let's say the exercise should be revisited in two years!

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You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.

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