Hasta La Ideas

Perhaps the biggest design buzz of last week happened just a little too late on Friday afternoon to catch a whole slew of notice. Also, because the internet pretty much shuts down over the weekends, it’s something you’ll likely see explode over the next couple of days. Gizmodo, the popular gadget blog, received a copy of the design concepts for Microsoft‘s new retail shops, which they’re planning to open this fall. Although a spokesman from the company says they’re only ideas submitted to them by the consulting firm Lippincott and aren’t the final product, Gizmodo speculates that, since the images were date stamped in early July and Microsoft hopes to open in the fall, they’re likely very close to what we’ll see as the real deal. Our opinion? It looks a lot like the Apple Store, just with more stock photography. And we’re sure we’re going to hear that sort of critique everywhere, but in Microsoft’s sort-of-defense, isn’t every new retail concept trying to look like the Apple Store? Heck, we were in a yogurt store on Friday afternoon and that looked like you could get an iMac with your smoothie. Anyway, Gizmodo has a huge batch of images, which are a kick to browse. Go forth.

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