For a while, it seemed like Microsoft had slowed the pace of its retail store openings but in the past few months we have seen many more new locations start their operations in North America. Today, the company offered an update on its retail store business, stating that 35 new Microsoft Store locations had opened in 2013, bringing the total number to 83.
Microsoft said, "We have welcomed more than 362 million customers to our full-line, specialty and online Microsoft Store properties in more than 200 markets worldwide." However, all of the brick-and-mortar retail stores have opened in the U.S. and Canada so far. Microsoft confirmed that 2014 will see three more new store locations; one in Mississauga, Ontario, another in Farmington, Connecticut and the third in Paramus, New Jersey. Neowin has already reported on these new openings but so far. there are no specific dates for these new locations. Microsoft also opened their "store within a store" locations at 500 Best Buy retail outlets in the US over the summer
Microsoft also indicated today that it will continue to launch smaller specialty shops in the future while also expanding a number of the current kiosk-like stores to larger full retail locations; details on those plans were not announced. Microsoft has yet to open a retail store outside of North America, although it did announce plans several months ago to expand its reach into China at some point.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft