The reason for slow windows phone sales

Posted by Bubba89 on September 9, 2012 09:17 am 10

Microsoft is doing a horrible job at controlling the retail experience (with the exception of their own stores). At my local Best Buy in Stafford, VA there are about a dozen demo phones (2 iphone, 7 android phones, 3 blackberry phones, and 1 Nokia 900 windows phone). For about the last 6 months the only demo phone that is not working is the windows phone. I have repeatedly asked the sales guy if the phone works....and get the response that something is wrong with the charging cable connnection, but it has never gotten fixed. I have never seen any of the iphone devices or android devices that were on display (for consumers to interact with) not working. It is no wonder the public has been slow to adopt windows phone. If I can't try the device when I am in the store, there is a very low chance that I would end up buying it.

The same goes for windows laptops. At the marine base at Quantico, Apple used to only have a couple laptops on a shelf. Now they have a whole mini-store inside the electronics section of the store with an apple representative to assist customers with their purchase and explain the differences in the computers they sell. All the computers are turned on and spaced out nicely with promotional material nearby. Meanwhile all the PCs have been relegated to a couple overcrowded shelves, half are not turned on, and the ones that are have all different screen savers or add on software (skins) that detracts from a cohesive experience.

It is baffeling to me how apple can control the retail experience so tightly, yet microsoft (who sells over 300 million PC through retail partners) cannot dictate terms for displaying devices that runs their software. These are not isolated examples....I see this in most electronic stores I visit. Hopefully this will change when windows 8 comes to market this fall.