B&T’s finance guy and slight tech nerd John Hromin was one of the lucky few first through the door when Microsoft opened its brand new Sydney store yesterday. Here’s what he thought of the whole affair…

Attending the opening of the first retail flagship Microsoft store outside of the US in Sydney at midday on Thursday was a rare opportunity for The Misfits (publisher of B&T) finance guy. As the sole user of a Windows PC in our office I got the afternoon off and the opportunity to write an exclusive first (for me) story. The objective was to get “one up” on an office full of creative Apple fanboys and to present Microsoft virtues.

 

So with my VIP pass in hand (courtesy of my Surface Book pre-order) I missed the scrum of organised chaos in Sydney’s Pitt St Mall at lunch time. Getting ahead of the queue that so many geeks that had waited up to 16 hours beforehand made me feel somewhat guilty but hey they weren’t coughing up almost $3,000 of their hard earned.

After being greeted by very some enthusiastic Microsoft cheerleaders and receiving the mandatory Microsoft baseball cap and T-shirt, the assortment of visual distractions caught my attention. So what’s not to like? There is 500 square metres of glittering glass façade over two levels of super premium retail space in the heart of the city. All types of new gadgets ranging from the showpiece Surface 4 Pro, Xbox One to the funky Surface Book which doubles a laptop come tablet. The community focused space is openly advertised as the ideal place to hang out, play Minecraft on massive LCD screens, and to sort out tech issues even on non-Microsoft products.

After waiting over an hour in a queue in store to collect my Surface Book the time had finally come. Arriving at the counter in less than three minutes I collected my device and was made much poorer. To alleviate the financial pain, I grabbed those exclusive double tickets to the special performance of British singer and Voice judge Jessie J and Aussie winner Ellie Drennan at the State Theatre on Thursday. Great opportunity to wind down after an action packed day. Way to go Microsoft!