Just read on James Senior’s blog that Microsoft has released a press release saying they have hired David Porter, the former Head of Worldwide Distribution at Dreamworks SKG. His new role will be to improve the consumer purchasing experience of PCs and Microsoft products as well as overseeing the opening of retail stores.
REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 12, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that David Porter will join the company as corporate vice president of Retail Stores. He will lead Microsoft’s efforts to create a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumers worldwide through the development and opening of the company’s own retail stores. Read More
You may have read about Microsoft’s real-life stores that wasn’t open to the public on Long Zheng’s blog last month. Was this really a shop to demonstrate Microsoft’s retail technologies, was it a prototype store as part of the company proposal or a bit of both?
As with most things Microsoft, if any stores do open up they will be in the US first. Why not, it is a US company after all? I personally think that while Microsoft stores are opened in the US, they probably won’t extend to creating a chain of stores in other parts of the world, instead focusing on the improvement of the purchasing process through existing retailers. If a store does open outside the US, like Apple, the UK and other countries may see a central flagship store whose performance will be monitored before diving in and opening a full chain of stores.