Microsoft opened its fourth retail store yesterday, in California, the same day Apple launched its iPhone 4 device. The new store is four shops away from Apple’s own store in Fashion Valley Mall, San Diego.
Queues were extremely long for both stores report witnesses. Microsoft store employees handed out free t-shirts, skateboards, gig tickets and even some free laptops to hundreds of visitors. Joe Wilcox, writer at BetaNews.com, spoke to several teen girls who admitted they came just for the freebees. In comparison Apple Store visitors were waiting in line to shell out hundreds of dollars on a brand new iPhone 4. The mood at the Microsoft store was a lot more upbeat with visitors chanting “Microsoft” repeatedly and cheering when the store opened.
Despite the iPhone 4 launch Microsoft seems to have successfully taken Apple’s retail model and mirrored it so far. Microsoft has introduced the Kinect gaming system to its four stores so customers can be the first to play the new controller-less system, due to launch in November for Xbox 360.
Microsoft’s San Diego store is the fourth, joining the first two locations in Scottsdale, Arizona and Mission Viejo, California and recently opened Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree, Colorado. Microsoft is also planning to open a fifth store in the Seattle area. The Microsoft Store’s offer all of the Microsoft products found through online retailers and inside major retail chains, including keyboards and mice, Windows 7, Xbox360 and many more products. Apple currently has 222 stores in the United States alone, and 287 total stores worldwide, including 27 in the UK and 14 in Canada.
Microsoft has removed the Bing iPhone application from all international Apple App Stores except the United States.
The Bing application began disappearing from various countries App Store’s on Monday. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the move and said the company accidently made the application available to countries outside the U.S. “When we released the iPhone application we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence. We noticed the error within 24 hours and took steps to remove availability for all countries except for the US,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in an email to Neowin.
Microsoft originally released the Bing iPhone application in December 2009. It’s not clear why it took three months to remove the availability for all countries except the U.S. The Bing iPhone application allows users to search for information, images, maps and directions. Voice search is also included.
Microsoft says that it is planning to release international versions of the Bing iPhone application but that it has “no dates to share at this time”.
A couple, described by themselves as being ‘obsessed’ with Apple products, got married at the company’s store in New York on Valentines Day, via TechRadar. The couple first met at the store when shopping for an iPhone.
In the unauthorised ceremony, the wedding rings were tied by a ribbon wrapped around a first generation iPod, and the couple read their vows from their iPhones. Henry Hu, a friend who officiated the wedding was dressed as Steve Jobs in a black turtle neck sweater – $4.75 from a Sears clearance rack according to his blog.
The vows read out by the Jobs dressed friend said, ”You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down.”
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, which confirmed that this was their actual wedding, the bridegroom said, ”We got to know each other because Ting was looking to buy an iPod…and I managed to strike up a conversation that way.”
“I used to joke that the Apple Store is my church because I am not religious, and I loved everything Apple.”
A video of the wedding recorded by a hot dog vendor who works outside the store was posted on YouTube.
Keeping in tradition with its countdown to major milestones within its online stores (such as the One Billion App contest held last year), Apple has started its ‘Countdown to 10 Billion Songs’ promotion, obviously in anticipation of the 10 billionth song download in iTunes.
The promotion, which you can view in iTunes here, limits daily entries to 25 per person. You can enter by downloading or purchasing a song from the iTunes Store, or else you can submit an entry on Apple’s website. The winner, selected after the 10 billionth song has been downloaded, will win a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card, which certainly isn’t to be scoffed at, though the prize seems to be much smaller when compared to previous competitions; the One Billion App competition featured not only an iTunes Store card as a prize, but a range of hardware as well, such as a Time Capsule and MacBook Pro. A counter displaying the number of downloaded songs can be seen on Apple’s competition page, as well as a list of the top 10 songs of all time in the iTunes Store itself.
If you’d like to enter the competition, which runs until the last song has been downloaded, you can purchase or download songs via the iTunes Store, or enter through the form found here. The rules for the competition are here, should you need to have a look at them (which is always recommended). You must be 13 or older to enter, and of course, you’ll need to be in a country in which the iTunes Store can be found.
