Well, it seems that Gateway couldn’t pull off the retail store thing, and they are closing all stores. Apple on the other hand, appears to be doing well with it’s stores. Everytime I talk to someone about them, they usually say they find it very difficult to leave without buying something, or at least lusting after some well-designed product.
Even people who aren’t Mac users will go into the Apple store, often to check out the iPod, a consumer electronic device. What’s that? Gateway is all about consumer electronics? Really? Hmmm, I didn’t know that, I thought they were a second rate PC manufacturer.
I wonder if Dell could pull off operating a retail store. My guess is they couldn’t, due to the way they operate, which seems to be about good enough quality and keeping costs low. (User experience be damned!)