Microsoft Stores = Tech Support Nightmare (?)

So, Microsoft has decided to go “head to head” with Apple on the retail front. This made for interesting conversation in my marketing class yesterday, where the day’s topic happened to be retailing. For the most part, my students thought the idea was a bad one, primarily because Microsoft is not “cool.” But apparently so do a lot of others in the industry, despite words of caution on nay-saying. (Note: This latter link alone is worth following just to see Steve Jobs’ “pitch” for Apple stores, circa 2001.)

But my take is this: Microsoft primarily sells software (Zune and XBox as the exceptions). Their software is distributed across many platforms and is largely independent of hardware. Apple sells an experience. It is self-contained and thus easily controlled. Microsoft plans to have something similar to the “Genius Bar.” So if I buy my version of Windows from the Microsoft store, do I have access to the (Microsoft) Genius Bar? If so, I can see a tech support nightmare in the making. I mean, what are they actually supporting? Do they turn people away with hardware issues? With so many possible hardware-software configurations … Yikes.