Microsoft is the next company (after Samsung and Apple) to take over Best Buy floor space-- the company plans to open a "comprehensive" Windows Store-within-a-store inside 600 Best Buy locations spread across the US and Canada.
Ranging from 140 to 204 square metres in size the mini Windows Stores host the gamut of Microsoft products, with Microsoft-trained staff showing customers products such as Windows tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Office products and Xbox consoles.
The stores' design predictably remind of the Apple take on retail, being replete with benches and wooden flooring. An "innovation table" carries the newest devices, an "ecosystem section" shows how different Microsoft devices work together and the walls house accessories and software.
The company will also update its online stores with a look that will "mirror the in-store look-and-feel and offer a full range of Microsoft products, even those from other places in the Best Buy store," Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela says.
Of course Microsoft gives no word for similar European plans-- but then again it still has to start opening Windows Stores in Europe to begin with, not to mention Best Buy did exit retail within our territories recently...