So you’ve heard of this? Microsoft is proposing to open Microsoft Stores (Apple Store clones, nearly down the the furniture). It’s a good move, but what are they going to line the shelves with? Copies of mice and Windows XP boxes? I kid. But truthfully, they don’t manufacture that many products. Oh, and keyboards—mice, Windows, and keyboards. Maybe X-Boxes too? Have a gaming wing? Anyway, I digress.

Employees delivered a stirring PowerPoint, outlining the plan. Right away, I noticed a big problem: The PC. You know, the thing that actually runs Windows. Apple has the luxury of supporting their own hardware (as well as software). When a Mac user walks up to a Genius Bar at an Apple Store, the Apple Genius has express knowledge about the entire unit. Sadly, Microsoft “Gurus” won’t. There are plenty of PC makers who manufacture hardware—from Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Sony, MSI, and more. While the operating system may be the same on all of them (read Windows XP and up), the hardware won’t be, and Microsoft is in no position to supply a repair. So if your Asus notebook won’t boot, what is a Microsoft Guru going to do for you? Refer you to the device manufacturer? That’s going to upset a lot of people. I mean, I can do that myself. Why did I visit a Microsoft store if they’re only going to transfer my problem to another company? People won’t like that. No one likes to be transferred. It’s upsetting. People want to leave with a repair or a new product, not the run-around.

Walking into an Apple Store, you get full service under one roof. If there is a hardware failure, they can service the unit for you. No need to go anywhere else. Because Apple manufacturers both the hardware and the software to run it, they are in an optimal position to please the customer. Microsoft makes an operating system (okay and a gaming station and some peripherals). But it doesn’t manufacture (or have any connection with) the hardware. It just so happens that PC manufacturers chose to install said operating system on their products (they could just as well—and have—install a competitor like Linux).

Sadly, let’s add further to the confusion: 99% of PCs sold on the market have a big sticker declaring “Designed for Windows”, blurring even further the distinction between Microsoft and the PC. A general user may wonder why the Microsoft Guru can’t fix his Toshiba when 3 stickers on the face scream Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft!

Setting up these Guru Bars are great on conceptual paper (and I imagine squirmy stockholders that haren’t too happy about the profit reports), but they fail miserably when you run them through the “real life simulator.” Again, Microsoft is going to butcher this endeavour because they are just incredibly myopic (baffling at times, I know). Success is not based on ideas alone, but the actual implementation of those ideas, and that’s what this company just can’t seem to grasp (baffling at times, I know). They mimic the successful company only to a superficial degree. No wonder the Redmond Giant is wobbling…