Microsoft Stores: Secret Is 'Apple Location, Apple Location, Apple Location'

This week, I went to the Stanford Shopping Center and noticed how close the Microsoft and Apple stores were in design — and physical proximity.

Check it out:

In the clear glass window, Windows 8 was advertised. Even the Microsoft logo on top of the store resembled the Apple store's.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the Microsoft store was Surface, the new hybrid PC-tablet. There were also ultrabooks on the table on the left, along with other Microsoft products. It looked way too much like the Apple store, but there were no iPads or iPhones or Macbooks in sight. It felt a little strange to be honest. Much like the iPad Mini is on the clear glass walls of the Apple store, Microsoft used its latest products to lure in customers and keep them in there, hoping that by allowing them to touch the items, they'd buy them in the store.

This closeness is no coincidence. It's part of the retail game.

All Microsoft Stores are listed here.

All the Apple stores are listed here.

If you are undecided, there are several states where Microsoft stores are located conveniently close to Apple stores, usually in the same shopping center. But don't wait too long — many of the Microsoft stores are temporary seasonal stores open only for the holidays.

California:

Colorado:

Connecticut:

Delaware:

Florida:

Georgia:

Illinois:

Maryland:

Massachusetts:

Minnesota:

Las Vegas:

New Hampshire:

New Jersey:

New York:

North Carolina:

Oklahoma:

Pennsylvania:

Tennessee:

Texas:

Virginia:

Washington:

Larry Seltzer, editor of BYTE, lives in New Jersey. He looked up stores near him. There are two permanent Microsoft stores in New Jersey, one in Bridgewater Commons and the other at the Freehold Raceway Mall. In Freehold the stores are very close. The Bridgewater's appear to be in adjacent "zones" of the mall.

It's an old retail practice. It's why you so often see a Lowe's so close to a Home Depot, why fast food restaurants so often cluster together. It tends to work better for all of them, although one supposes that in this case it works better for Microsoft than for Apple.

Clearly Microsoft seeks out locations very close to Apple stores.This also explains why there are no permanent Microsoft stores in Manhattan yet. They just haven't found the right real estate close enough to one of the three Apple stores.The one in Grand Central they'll never be able to do, although perhaps they could do one in Penn Station. The one on 5th Avenue near Central Park South is a real possibility.

I can't blame Microsoft for following Apple's retail strategy. Even Tesla set up shops modeled after Apple's design.