Field Trip to Apple Store

I know Microsoft has its MSDN Academic Alliance, an excellent program for students, but no matter how much they try, they are still missing one thing - getting really close & personal with the user and - possibly - future employee. Why am I saying this? The answer is exactly the title of the article - while "academic alliance" is something more general, and the design of the website follows Microsoft's corporate layout used and overused for a lot of their pages(and a bit outdated, if you ask me), "Field Trip to Apple Store" get much closer to the user, as we're going to see right away!

One of these days, I was thinking about one thing - what are those attributes that would really make Microsoft products interesting for 5-10 year old kids? I am not talking about their games, but about the Zune, or even(maybe most important of all) Windows. The answer doesn't look good at all - Microsoft lacks two essential features - the "cool factor" and being really close to its users. Don't tell me Windows Vista is cool, I won't buy that - it's even more than just cool - it's frozen!

Having a well chosen headline - "Our Store. Their time to shine," the Apple Field Trip website is all about shopping and learning at the same time.

If you're a teacher, all you have to do is "Take your students on a Field Trip to an Apple Store for an unforgettable learning experience. On their Field Trip, students can create something amazing right on the spot. Or they can bring in a project they’ve already created and turn our store into a theater, sharing their achievements with parents, teachers, and friends. No matter which option you choose, everyone will have a great time." Pretty cool, don't you agree?

Field trips are open to K-12 students in the U.S. and Canada, unfortunately, so the rest of the world should simply sit back and hope for a more interesting future offered by Apple to the rest of the world(at least the MSDN Academic Alliance program is offered in a lot of countries...).