Microsoft wants to play with the cool kids by changing its image and taking Apple head on. The house that Bill built goes directly against Steve Jobs on the retail front with their newly minted Microsoft store. Devoted exclusively to Microsoft products, the sleek and modern setup shares immediate similarities with the popular and trendy Apple store. Sporting a similarly young staff in brightly-colored shirts, areas for laptops, Personal computers, ZUNE, and Xbox with a comfortably similar help center at the rear, does Microsoft’s trendy overhaul speak convincingly to a new audience? Coinciding with the launch of the favorably received Windows 7, Microsoft hopes that the launch of a new look and a new operating system, might equal a bold new future with the growing tech-cozy thirty something spending market.

The best news for Xbox fans? The Microsoft store can fix most Xbox 360 RROD problems on-site, so no more sending your Xbox off for impromptu vacations. Unfortunately, the only existing store is in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here’s hoping for expansion.