Retailers Train on Windows 7

Microsoft consultants, developers, integrators should be technically well versed in Microsoft products that they implement to clients as well as knowledgeable enough to competitor products to point difference and the pros and cons between them (although all pros point to the Microsoft side most of the time).

Anyways, aside from these consultants, developer and integrators who help sell Microsoft products to the enterprise, the retail giants like Best Buy also play a major role in selling Microsoft products and as such, Microsoft has created training materials targeted at Best Buy retail employees that would enable them to sell Windows vs Linux products far better.

Also, In a report from Ars Technica (Ars Technica on the Microsoft training materials of Best Buy), they have gottent Best Buy training material documents which teaches store employees how to make a pitch on Windows 7 vs MACs. Microsoft is spending a lot of resources and money to make this training possible, effective across retail employees and their training against both the Linux and MACs environments tell you how serious the company is in getting their market share back. They have lost a lot of traction when Windows Vista didn’t sell as much as Windows XP did and when the new operating system failed to uproot Windows XP while they saw increased usage in both MAC and Linux.

The message on these documents are similar to the Laptop Hunters TV commercials of Microsoft wherein they discuss that PC offer more bang for the buck compared to MAC computers. On the materials it clearly shows that Microsoft Windows users save as much as $ 300 USD compared to when buying MACs.

Other information on the training materials are on better PC customization options, more games, more applications.

Microsoft is definitely after the swing decision makers, those consumers who haven’t decided whether they are buying a MAC, PC or Linux based computers. I don’t know how big the market is, but Microsoft has definitely done their homework and most likely they see a lot of market share from this swing decision makers. They are trying to get more steps forward compared to MACs and Linux.

Image from Windows 7.