Microsoft announced plans to open retail stores, hoping to boost visibility of many of its products and its brand (Apple mimicry, perhaps?). The news is just too tempting not to have some fun with. So here are some yet-to-be-officially-revealed details about the Microsoft stores.
Dell shares are down today after a disappointing Black Friday weekend at Best Buy stores. A survey of 35 PC experts indicates that salespeople prefer HP to Dell by a margin of 5 to 1, and that Dell is the only brand at Best Buy with negative comments–pointing to potential quality issues.
Apple’s Black Friday discounts are less than some analysts had expected, though they’re pretty much in line with what was offered last year. Many retailers are offering deeper discounts, but Apple stores are price-matching. Some expected that Apple, with its strong cash position and favorable production pricing costs, would offer more to a vulnerable consumer base. There will be no iPhone discount today.
In March 2007, Circuit City came up with a plan to confront softening sales and competition from online and offline retailers: Fire the most talented, experienced employees.
Analysts at Avian Securities and Morgan Keegan downgraded Palm stock this morning, prompting a sharp downturn in shares. Reasoning includes the conjecture that smartphone sales will be down for the next few quarters. This is certainly true for the Palm Centro, and the Treo Pro and Treo 800w may not even make it to AT&T and Verizon stores in time for the holiday season. Early demand for the BlackBerry Bold, however, appears to be “robust.”
Earlier this week, the hedge fund manager William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management floated the idea that the book retailer Borders Group (BGP) should consider selling itself to Amazon.com (AMZN).
On April 17, 2008, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application titled Enhancing Online Shopping Atmosphere. Apple’s patent generally relates to improving the experiences that online-shoppers may have at an online Apple Store, sometime in the future. While Apple points to the obvious advantages of shopping online, such as being continuously open for business 24/7, allowing consumers to quickly use search functions to find multiple items and of course the best of all, never having to leave the house to shop. However, Apple acknowledges that they have a long way to go before delivering a more interactive experience that could match that found in the real world.
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