Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer, better known for his crazy and quite frankly disturbing stage entrances (see below), has stated in an interview with Business Week that he intends to position Microsoft Stores (love the original name) close to Apple Stores as “the traffic is going to be there.”
Ballmer stated that Microsoft ‘must beat them anyway’, the ‘must’ in that sentence is rather telling. Microsoft are losing ground, especially on the retail side of things, and this just seems like desperate copycat attempt (as always with Microsoft) to turn things round.
Besides, even if they do open stores next to Apple, it is unlikely that Microsoft will be able to take away much of Apple’s already established customer base, so it seems like a pretty pointless and desperate move in that sense as well.