Last week, Microsoft and Best Buy announced that they will be doing a Microsoft “store-within-a-store”. Essentially, Microsoft will pay Best Buy a large sum of money to “own” part of the store, in a way similar to Samsung and Apple. Best Buy will still own the inventory, but Microsoft will own the merchandising, staffing-levels and training. I believe this is a big step forward, and if executed well, helps solve many of the issues associated with Windows 8 PC experience. Let me start with some perspective on Windows 8.
For anyone who has been in the industry a while, you know that a few things defines the Windows experience over the last 20 years:
- primary keyboard and mouse UI
- one, windowed Desktop environment with lots of “chrome”
- start button (18 years ago)
- multitasking of any app
- backwards app and peripheral compatibility
- desktops and notebook form factors
Windows 8 changed ALL of this:
- primary UI display touch, secondarily mouse and keyboard
- two environments; one Metro and secondly Desktop
- no start button
- every Desktop app multitasks, select Metro apps multitask
- Desktop X86 backwards compatibility, ARM no app backwards compatibility, undetermined peripheral compatibility
- desktops, notebooks, convertibles, detachables, tablets
In other words, everything changed. The problem was, that Best Buy’s training and merchandising didn’t change dramatically to educate the buyer on the benefits of Windows 8 nor the differences between Windows 8 and Windows RT. After talking at length with Microsoft, here are my expectations:
- computer will always be turned on and internet-connected
- security devices won’t impede ability to try convertibles and detachables
- more knowledgeable sales associates
- touch devices clearly merchandised
- more, higher-priced “hero” SKUs that are the best of the best
If executed well, I believe this will go a long way in mitigating the current buying experience issues inherent with Windows 8 and Windows RT. The Austin store is one of the first stores to open and I will be there on opening night to gauge their level of execution. And of course, will report back.