@PDC – Visiting the Microsoft Retail Store in CA

I plan to do a lot of blogging about Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference and Windows Azure while in LA this week. However this is not one of those posts.

I arrived in LA on Friday to spend the weekend with my son who lives there.  For fun we took a ride down past Disneyland to see the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo California.  After all it was only an hour and a half south of LA!

This is the second of the new Microsoft retail stores to open. It was located in an upscale mall, The Shops at Mission Viejo. Outside the store the mall was covered in banners and signs advertising the store.

I was there on a Saturday afternoon and it was mobbed.  On display were computers from Dell, Lenovo, HP and others, several mobile phones, hardware accessories, Xboxes and lots and lots of software. (I fell in love with the new solid-state Dell Adamo, despite the price.)

There were also several Microsoft Surface table-top units on display but it was impossible to get close to them due to their popularity.

The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) based computer wall that wrapped  completely around the store was a nice effect.

The Microsoft staffers (and there were a lot of them) were very enthusiastic and anxious to help everyone who walked in.  At one point they even all got together and did a dance number to the music playing from the speakers in the store. (Electric Slide!)

I had heard that there was an Apple Store also in the mall but it was closed for renovation so we could not compare the crowds. All-in-all it was a pretty cool experience!

Bill

Bill Zack

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