If you thought Brazil gaining a Microsoft Store was great news you may want to sit down for this next tidbit. Microsoft Brazil confirmed today that this plan is part of a larger retail push that involves the conversion of more than 50 existing Nokia locations into Microsoft Stores.
Of course, all of these won"t be exactly like the large stores we see in some US malls as many will be smaller kiosks in the style of the Microsoft Specialty Stores. But this is still good news and all these changes will beging to happen over the next 2 months , with the company planning for a total of a hundred stores by the end of the year.
As expected, these new stores will sell more than just phones: accessories, subscriptions for services such as Xbox Live, Skype, and Office 365, and eventually future Microsoft products are all expected. The stores will also feature "smart shelves" which will utilize Kinect technology to identify products a consumer is looking at. The system will then provide relevant information about the product on a screen to personalize the shopping experience.
To celebrate the launch of its new store, the first of which will indeed show up in Sao Paulo at the Eldorado Mall, Microsoft will be offering its first 100 customers a "special gift", though the its contents are currently a mystery.
We are glad to see Microsoft working hard to expand its retail presence South America with this new push. Brazil is one of the largest Windows Phone markets, so this kind of dedication to retail in the country makes a lot of sense. Perhaps in time we"ll see such efforts in other parts of the world as well. Additionally, it sounds like there will be some pretty interesting technology built into these new stores to attract customers, old and new.
Source: Microsoft Via: Windows Central