This should be fun....Microsoft to open retail stores "right next to Apple"!

I'll quote Fast Company right out of the box:

Why is it that everyone competing with Apple chooses to compete on Apple's terms? If you've got to beat Lance Armstrong at something and you get to choose the game, would you really roll up to his front door, pedaling your Huffy?

I am completely willing to eat crow a year from now if proven wrong, but this can not possibly end well for Microsoft. After all, this is the company that brought you the brown Zune, a device so repugnant that a hollowed-out example was billed as the perfect place to safely hide your iPod as NO ONE would want to steal it.

While store designs have not been revealed, their recent "concept" store on the Redmond campus manages to look exactly like the love child of a Circuit City and a Walgreens, to again quote Fast Company.

Speaking at the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on Wednesday, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told people to "stay tuned" for more news on the retail front.

"And stay tuned, because we're going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall," he said. "Stay tuned, just stay tuned."

I can't wait.