With the current state of the US economy (which is now officially listed as “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”), Microsoft’s most recent announcement seems untimely at best, and foolish at worst.  In an effort to emulate the success of Apple’s retail stores, Microsoft announced yesterday that it will be opening its own chain of “Brand stores.”  

At this point, we don’t have any details as far as when this is happening, how many stores, where they’ll be, or what merchandise they’ll be selling, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the stores will mostly carry Xbox 360 games and accessories, games for Windows, and Zunes, and that they will likely be very green. The only detail we do know for sure is that the whole operation is being run by David Porter, a former DreamWorks executive, who was named Microsoft’s new vice president of retail stores on Thursday.

I’ve always seen these stores as more of a branding technique than an actual retail revenue source, but, apparently, Apple makes a solid profit from their stores.  Of course, other company-specific boutique stores, such as SonyStyle, simply hemmorhage money, and serve as little more than expensive 3D billboards. Which way Microsoft's endeavor goes depends largely on whether or not they can market its merchandise with the same kind of style and effectiveness that Apple has.  Let’s face it; Xbox 360s sell well, but they don’t engender that warm, fuzzy feeling that iPods do.  Time will tell if the world’s most recognizable hardware and software makers can also be seen as one of its coolest.

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