Microsoft officially opened its flagship store on NYC’s historic Fifth Avenue today just blocks away from Apple’s iconic glass cube, and it’s taken a few pages from the iPhone-maker’s playbook in the process.
The doors to Microsoft’s new store opened just in time for the release of the new Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, but Microsoft says it’s totally cool if Apple fans bring in their devices too.
“If you bring your iPhone in here, I’d love to show you how to use Office on it,” said Kelly Soligon, senior director of retail stores marketing at Microsoft. There are signs of Apple’s influence throughout the store through, from the giant glass facade to the glass staircase.
Take a look inside:
The inside is very open and clean, with tables of products for hands-on demos, just like the Apple Store. There’s a lot more signage in the Microsoft Store though. Print Moz recently wrote and article about the future of in-store signage. In it, they mention this store and its clever use of old and new signage tech. The walls of the store feature 30-foot long displays. There’s also another 30-foot tall display behind the ‘Answer Desk’ which is like the Genius Bar.
The store also features a big gaming section on the second floor, lecture areas, and tons of software for sale. For more details, check out this video from the folks at TechInsider who toured the shop before it opened:
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
10 responses to “Inside Microsoft’s Fifth Ave store that looks just like an Apple Store”
Wow it’s nothing like an Apple store. Quit bitchin’.
I agree. I don’t think it looks like an Apple Store at all.
“If you bring your iPhone in here, I’d love to show you how to use Office on it”. Wow, thrilling!
I’m assuming those photos were taken during rush hour?
Yes, imitation is the best form of flattery but they could have at least shown an ounce of pride and made an effort to try something a little different.
I suppose the darker shade of the table tops is it.
This shows how little thought has been put into Microsoft’s marketing. There’s almost zero attempt to do anything unique or improve on what Apple stores already look like. It’s truly pitiful and shameful how Microsoft is trying desperately to look like Apple, in an attempt to garner some of the business that is going Apple’s way. Even their new Surface Pro laptop looks nearly identical to the MacBook Pro. The amazing desperation shown by this slavish copying of everything Apple has done is ridiculous, especially when Microsoft’s marketing department should already know that the way to gain recognition and sales is to make themselves a unique experience with a unique corporate identity. What the heck are they thinking?
And it is still a ghost town even on Fifth Ave. MS store in Valley Mall in San Jose, CA is right across from Apple store inside the mall…I meant ~30ft across the hallway. When I was in Apple store looking over, MS store always had 5x more staffs than customers and their staffs were around 10 people while in Apple stores, there’re hundred or more people. That’s a typical day..,I was there around 1:30-2:30PM on Friday.
First it was Samsung who wanted (and still does) to be just like Apple now Microsoft. Well they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
it looks like a biology lab in a really good high school.
Looking forward to hearing about the fire.