Does “The Microsoft Store” have the same ring as “The Apple Store”?

Plans are afoot in Redmond to open up Microsoft-branded retail stores for all of your Microsoft needs. According to Salon:

The company hired David Porter, a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., as its corporate vice president of retail stores. … The company said his first task will be to set the timing, locations and design of Microsoft-branded retail stores, which will sell computers installed with Microsoft software as well as other company products.

Other products will probably include Xboxes, peripherals, and software.  The kind of thing you can find at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target right now.  But with the added bonus of Microsoft know-it-alls, if this is any indication:

[Last fall] Microsoft posted 144 of its own employees in electronics chain stores around the world to talk with shoppers about Windows.  The “Gurus” seemed to be Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s in-store “Genius Bar.”

This move seems ill-advised in light of the economic downturn in the retail sector.  But who knows, maybe a Guru will make all the difference. Source: Salon.com