Microsoft to sell coffee

The giant is firing on all fours to make a success out of their new Operating System: Windows 7.

Paris will soon experience a different kind of computer pop-up. Microsoft is planning to open a café in the heart of the city at Chatelet-Les Halles.

The objective is to create buzz on October 22, 2009 when Windows 7, Microsoft’s new Operating System finally debuts. The café will sell éspresso, latté and snacks while customers take the new Windows 7 and other software one PCs for a ride. Clémence Brondel, a publicist for Microsoft in France says, “The café is a temporary marketing scheme and will be open only for a few months.” However, no software or hardware will be sold.

The concept of pop-up stores is not new though. There have been other brands like Gap and Nike who have experimented with pop-up stores that open without warning and close in a short time.

On a loosing battle with Google, Apple, Linux and Mozilla Firefox - Microsoft is now allowing subsidiaries worldwide to run their own promos. Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directons on Microsoft, says that the model will be replicated in other places if it finds success in Paris.