Charlotte, NC (RP)- Having survived Christmas, I decided to venture back into a few of our local malls (Northlake & Southpark) to return Christmas gifts that didn’t quite workout. My quest was mostly walking around and waiting for my wife & daughter to do their returns. As I strolled and waited in number of seating areas throughout both malls, something peculiar really began to stand out.A common theme was taking shape, I noticed an unusually high amount of advertising items throughout both of the malls for Microsoft Windows 8 software, the Microsoft Surface computer and Dell computer tablets with the Windows 8 software.It seemed somewhat odd that there would be such a large media blitz from Microsoft for a new operating system rollout.Is this normal? How good is windows 8? With such a large amount in-mall advertising , was is it making a difference? Is the tide being swayed to Microsoft from Apple? If so, is the Apple store a “ghost town” now? Hurray! Now with all of these questions, I now had something to do and was off to find the Apple store and Microsoft Kiosks in both malls to get some kind of idea how these competitors are doing against each other.Arriving at the Apple store in both malls, I found that they were both busier than ever .
What is going on here?
Why are so many people here?
Are they all doing returns?
Was there a big sale going on?
After having eventually lost count of people in the Apple store, I had seen enough. It seemed quite apparent that the extensive advertising in the mall for the competing Microsoft products was doing very little to hurt the demand that the Apple products have.Having seen what kind of activity Apple was having, I was off to see how Microsoft was doing in comparison.
In the Southpark mall, I knew where the Microsoft kiosk was. So I headed over there and I got my sampling of what kind of activity they were seeing and to try out their tablet again to see if I liked it better the second time around. (No luck, I didn’t like much better the second time either.)When we went to the Northlake mall, finding the Microsoft/Dell kiosk was definitely a little trickier to locate. After having wondered around for a while,I finally found it hidden behind a kids toys kiosk and nestled-in under some stairs leading to the upper level of the mall (picture to the right).With all of these observations being discussed, let it be known that I have always been primarily a Microsoft Windows (PC) user and have very little experience using Apple products until recently. With this article, I am merely conveying facts and providing my viewpoints/ conclusions as I had seen them.Here are the numbers after having gone to both malls.
Final observations:
These observations were merely a snapshot of just a few moments during a single day. Maybe the results would be different on a different day or a different time? Probably not, it’s pretty apparent that Microsoft competitors are beating them in the ever-changing computer/software market place by not only Apple, but Google as well. Based on what I had seen, very few people seemed interested in exploring what Microsoft had to offer.If Microsoft intends to remain a true player, they better start making a product that is different,better than their competition, and is something that people actually want to buy.
Microsoft is still one of the largest companies in the world that still make oodles of cash, however, if they continue at this pace they will eventually be forgotten. Hopefully windows 9 fares a little better for than Windows 8. Maybe in the next version they will address all of the virus and spyware issues.
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