Sony’s Qualia store finally opened today in Manhattan, the first retail outlet on our shores of Sony’s high-end luxury brand. I had a chance to check out the store a few weeks ago and was, well, a little let down. It’s not entirely Qualia’s fault though; who decided the best place to stick a high-end retail presence was in the back basement corner of an existing Sony store?
More impressions after the jump.
Sony’s Madison Avenue store is nice enough, especially the home theater section in the basement, with its private viewing areas and ‘like you’re home (in your mansion)’ type of feel. And the people that manage the basement are very proud of their space; I thought we were going to get in a fist fight when I started to take pictures (not allowed, I was to discover). So maybe that’s part of the Qualia store’s problem – you have to walk through this gauntlet of inviting product setups before you find yourself at the back, facing a small desk and two glass doors with black drapes obscuring your view inside the showrooms. It’s not welcoming, nor is it impressive. Not an auspicious start to making me drop $40,000 on a projector, let’s say.
And that’s the other problem. They didn’t have the new 005 and 006 televisions when I was at the store – that will probably warrant a trip back – but they did have 004, the 1920 by 1080 pixel projector, and it was fairly stunning. It was frustrating to watch the movies they had playing, though, because every time I had a question, the attendants – very nice looking boys, both of them, but clearly not the least bit geeky – could only spout back their pre-rehearsed lines about the product. In fairness, they were new on the job, but on the other hand, they only have to know about four products (six now). I mean, how hard is it to know if the movie source is coming from a Blu-Ray disc or something else?
The other products were even worse, capped off by the Qualia 016, the tiny 2-megapixel camera that comes in a hard metal case with a host of accessories, including a lens that makes the tiny LCD screen visible. It was impressive because it was tiny, of course, but it was also so small as to not be useable. What good is a camera with a screen so tiny you have to carry around a lens half-again as big to use it? No matter how small and nifty it looks, paying $4000+ (I think it was more – I don’t remember off hand) for a 2-megapixel camera is madness, especially when you can buy one nearly the same size (without all the James Bond accessories) for $300 these days with twice the resolution.
Anyway, color me ‘eh.’ I’m glad they’re moving the product line into retail here – I think it’s a smart move from a branding perspective – but they really should have an entire store dedicated to the product to really make it stand out. As it stands, it’s being treated like a low-rent sideshow; what they need is a shrine, where potential customers and gawkers alike can come to behold the amazing technology (even when it isn’t quite worthy of reverence).
Read – Press Release [ChaitGear]
