Microsoft is opening a retail store on Fifth Avenue, in time for all that holiday shopping. The new flagship, the first full-line Microsoft store, will be just a few blocks south of the Apple Store at 59th and Fifth.
It’s described as a “full retail experience”, which means we’ll get to test drive and buy phones, tablets, laptops, Xbox consoles and WP software, just like at the phenomenally successful Apple Stores.
The new Microsoft store will be at 677 Fifth Avenue, where the Fendi designer store has been. According to the Wall St. Journal, this is to be the first of nearly one dozen such Microsoft Stores around the country in time for the holiday shopping season.
The new Microsoft store is expected to have the Microsoft version of the Apple Genius Bar, called “answer desk’ for brief one-on-one consultations with a tech expert.
Apple has more than 250 such stores around the country, including in Soho, Lincoln Center, Meatpacking District and Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
Microsoft has opened numerous mini-shops, which it calls specialty stores, including in Best Buy locations. There also are locations at The Shops at Columbus Circle and the Staten Island Mall.
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