Microsoft is planning to go head-to-head, or maybe toe-to-toe, against Apple with a retail store across the parking lot from Apple’s University Village Apple Store in Seattle, Washington. The company confirmed the store through its Facebook site on Wednesday, writing on the caption of the photo below that the store will be coming sometime this Fall.
Coming Soon, Posted by Microsoft on Facebook
(Click the image for a larger version)
“From the top of the Space Needle, it looks like good things are on the horizon for Seattle,” the company wrote. “Particularly since the Microsoft Store is coming to University Village in the fall!”
It was Geekwire that noted the store’s proximity to the Apple Store, and while it won’t the first time Microsoft has opened a store in the same mall as Apple, it will mark a somewhat higher profile for the competition between the two companies. University Village is an outdoor mall, and both companies will have large store fronts visible to all passersby.
University Village is an upscale shopping mall that serves, in part, the University of Washington. The Fall schedule for opening the store will be in time for both eventual holiday shopping as well as Fall semester shopping for students at the University.
In addition to having competing stores, the two companies will have competing back-to-school promotions, as well. ZDNet noted that Microsoft is offering a free Xbox 360 with the purchase of a PC costing US$699 or more, while Apple is offering a $100 iTunes gift certificate with the purchase of a qualifying Mac.
Apple’s University Village Apple Store
Source: Apple
Microsoft’s University Village store is part of a big push by Big Redmond to beef up its retail presence. The company announced on July 13th that it will open some 75 new retail stores over the next two or three years.
PowerPoint Slide with Future Microsoft Retail Locations