Funny you compare with Sony. Sony has a store in New York (on Madison I think) that I tried to check out a couple times. Except it closes at like 5pm. In New York. A few blocks away there's an Apple store that never closes. As they put, the city that never sleeps needs a store that never sleeps.

Sony stores are not quite Best Buy, but they've only captured about 10% of the experience that makes Apple stores different.