It looks like Microsoft’s plan to beat Apple in the retail space by building their own Microsoft Stores right across from mall-based Apple Stores is paying off: Microsoft’s successfully chased Apple out of its space in the Bellevue, Washington shopping mall.
It’s something of a pyrrhic victory, though. Apple’s just moving to the second floor of the mall to a larger retail space. Directly overhead, overlooking Microsoft’s store, where it will literally be living in Apple’s shadow. If there was ever a time to LOL, this is it.
Besides creating obvious comparisons to classic Judao-Christian myth, in which those who are condemned to the inferno are forced to suffer within sight of the paradise that hovers overhead, Apple’s move seems to be purely logistical: by moving to the second floor of the mall, they’ll double the current size of their retail space from an existing 4,600 square feet. That doesn’t mean that the delicious irony of having every person leaving the Microsoft Store look up to see beautiful, angelic beings dangling almost ethereally beautiful gadgets just out of reach wasn’t at least a small part of the decision, though.
Not that any of this should take readers by surprise. Those of us who have been following the news lately know that Microsoft is getting used to living in Apple’s metaphorical shadow. It’s fitting that at least one small part of the empire should factually exist there.
