Taking aim at Apple - Microsoft Store opens in Minnesota

Microsoft's latest answer to the Apple Store finally arrived this morning with the another one of the tech giant's Microsoft Stores literally "facing-up" to the Apple Store from across the lobby of Minnesota's gigantic Mall of America.

Critics were once again quick to pounce on Microsoft's renewed thrust into the direct retail scene, but perhaps the wait was well-worth it? With a slew of recent consumer releases - Windows Phone 7 and the Xbox Kinect - working up a storm in the popular media, opening another store right across from its consumer-focused arch-rival Apple, at one of America's largest regional malls, seems to have been a shrewd move.

Ahead of an estimated 800,000 Kinect add-ons expected to be sold in the run-up to Christmas, perhaps another Microsoft Store will enhance its parent company's attempts to provide an on-the-ground consumer presence that many of its fans have been craving for.