There's a new cool kid in Corte Madera. Or at least one that's trying awfully hard to be cool.
On Saturday morning, Microsoft opened its hip new retail store, just a stone's throw from the rival Apple outlet in The Village shopping center, with so much hyper-activity that the word hoopla seems inadequate.
Some 500 mostly young people, many of them drawn by the chance to get wristbands that would get them into a free outdoor concert by pop star Kelly Clarkson, were lined up outside the Microsoft store, its front facade covered by a giant company backdrop. Some of them had been there all night.
The Corte Madera store is Microsoft's 29th in the country and the seventh in California. They're all outposts
Hundreds of people wait in line for the opening of the new Microsoft Store at The Village shopping center in Corte Madera, Calif. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. (IJ photo/Alan Dep) Alan Dep
in the Redmond, Washington-based software giant's newly waged campaign to take some of the mobile computing market away from Silicon Valley's Apple, the industry leader. Other openings have featured shows by Dave Matthews, Cee Lo Greene, John Legend and the Black Keys, among other stars.The two monster companies haven't locked horns since the early days of the computer revolution. Since then, Microsoft has dominated software and watched Apple take command of what's called "the post PC era" with its iPhone, iPod, iTunes and iPad.
A few weeks ago, a signal that Microsoft was out to establish a beachhead in the Bay Area came when the $200 million, 400-foot long yacht belonging to company co-founder Paul Allen docked in Richmond.
For Saturday's opening festivities, an outdoor festival-style stage ? big enough for an audience of 2,000 or more ? was erected in the gravel parking lot at the north end of the mall for Clarkson's late afternoon concert. On Sunday, former 49er Jerry Rice is scheduled to play a video game with customers.
Before Saturday morning's grand opening, radio station Star 101.3 blasted pop hits over a cranked-up sound system in the mall. At one point, Microsoft sales people, wearing bright turquoise T-shirts, entertained the waiting crowd, dancing to "Gangnam Style."
A gaggle of self-described Marin "fan girls" ? 16-year-old Ruby Lucas, sisters Karishma and Kismet Kumar, 12 and 15 respectively; and 15-year-olds Minna Friedlander and Corinne Bernhaud ? camped out all night to be among the first in line for special wristbands that would not only get them into Clarkson's concert, but also a meet-and-greet with the original American Idol winner afterward.
"We want to meet her!" the teens shouted in unison, sitting amidst their twisted sleeping bags. They had an iPad with them to help pass the time, and weren't as excited about the much-hyped new Surface tablet as they were about meeting a
Microsoft Store employees dance Gangnam style before the new store's unveiling at The Village shopping center in Corte Madera on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. (IJ photo/Alan Dep)
superstar.But a number of "early adopters" were. They waited in a separate line, giving sales people their orders for a Surface, a kind of combination tablet and laptop that runs Windows RT, a variation of the current Windows 8 operating system. It ranges in price from $499 to $699.
"I'm a PC kind of guy," said 25-year-old Steve Lee, a San Rafael pharmacy technician, as he placed his order. "In theory, the Surface has more features than the iPad."
He got no argument on that score from Panos Panay, general manager of Microsoft's Surface team.
"There is so much excitement in there with Microsoft Surface and Windows 8," he shouted into a hand-held microphone, speaking to the crowd with the soon-to-be-opened store behind him. "These two things, along with Xbox and Windows Phones, are coming together to bring life to Microsoft and really make some excitement happen."
Before the opening, Microsoft threw some of its money around, announcing technology grants for $250,000 to Girls Inc. and Sausalito's Children's Museum, and $1 million to Junior Achievement of the Bay Area.
Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, one of several local politicians at the opening, told the crowd, "Technology drives our world, and we're about to experience that."
Once the ribbons were cut and the glass doors were thrown open, the crowd streamed inside as the caffeinated sales staff jumped up and down and high-fived everyone to the deafening strains of Flo Rida's "Good Feeling." Adding to the sensory overload were walls that are solid video monitors, making the place look like a mini Times Square.
Just down the mall, it was business as usual at the nine-year-old Apple outlet. Customer Tarek Kronfli, a 29-year-old graduate student, held his MacBook Pro laptop under his arm as he talked on his iPhone.
"I'm a big fan of competition," he said, noting that he uses Microsoft Office on his Apple laptop. "I'm cool using both. I'm not really for one or the other. I use whatever works."
Contact Paul Liberatore via email at liberatore@marinij.com
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