In what may be test for a future permanent store, Microsoft
will open a retail kiosk in The Mall next week. The opening will coincide with
the launch of their new tablet, Surface.
Aside from video games, Microsoft has not enjoyed much success with its own hardware and once again it finds itself playing catch up to Apple. According to this story by Nick Wingfield in The New
York Times, Surface will retail “for a starting price of $500, the same
starting price as the current generation of Apple’s iPad.”
“Microsoft said it would sell a 32-gigabyte Surface bundled
with a black Touch
Cover, a keyboard that doubles as a protective shield for the tablet, for
$600. A similar bundle with a 64-gigabyte Surface will cost $700. Microsoft
will sell Touch Covers separately in a wider assortment of colors for $120, and
a different type of keyboard cover with moving keys, called Type Cover, will
sell for $130.”
Microsoft has already opened about 31 regular stores in the US and Canada . The closest ones to HoCo
are in Virginia in Tysons Corner Center
and the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Next week they will
open another 35 “curated” stores for the holiday season. Besides Columbia , the only other Maryland curated store will be in the
Montgomery Mall.
