Microsoft has been ramping up its retail presence in the past year, and has today announced that it will introduce five new stores to the U.S. over the course of 2013.
The exact dates of the store openings have not been disclosed, but the company promises they’ll be ready to go by summer.
Here are the new locations where Microsoft will have a retail presence:
- Natick Mall, Natick, Massachusetts
- Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Pioneer Place, Portland, Oregon
- The Somerset Collection, Troy, Michigan
- Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, Illinois
This comes on the heels of a recent announcement of six new U.S. stores, in San Antonio, Miami, Beachwood, San Francisco, Salt Lake City and St. Louis. That’s a total of 11 new stores in 2013, to go along with the 29 already-operational Microsoft stores in North America.
The company said in 2011 that it has plans to open 75 new retail stores over a two- to three-year period. 2013 has only just begun, so unless Microsoft plans on launching nearly half of its goal in 2014, I would expect to hear a few more announcements like this one in the coming months.
Here’s what Redmond had to say about it:
Our customers continue to tell us that they value our stores for connecting them to the best of Microsoft. This delights us to no end. From the newest touchscreen laptops, desktops, and tablets running Windows 8, to Windows Phones, to Xbox and Kinect consoles and accessories, to a wide array of first and third-party software titles, our goal is to introduce you to the best choice, value and service we have to offer.
Microsoft is clearly making a big push in the retail segment, but in terms of the competition, they’ll have a ways to go before the have the same retail presence as Apple. In fact, Apple has retail stores in every one of the five new locations.