Microsoft To Have Its Own Retail Outlet in Manhattan
Business Strategy By Microsoft
On Sunday, Microsoft confirmed that it will open its flagship retail store in Manhattan, New York City. This store will be opened on Fifth Avenue according to The Wall Street Journal.
Manhattan is devoid of a full-fledged Microsoft store. In February, 2009 Microsoft had made an official announcement that Manhattan will get its own Microsoft retail store. During this time David Porter was the Corporate Vice President of Retail Stores. But the retail store that was to be launched in Manhattan never happened.
To expand its retail presence, Microsoft always opened stores as close to an Apple store as possible. Apple too owns its own retail store on the Fifth Avenue. This has always been the business strategy of the company. The official confirmation of Microsoft to open a full sized retail store on Fifth Avenue is a good move. Full sized stores of Microsoft sell all Windows products like Windows PC, Windows Phone, Xbox, software's by Microsoft and third-party, games, peripherals and more.
Microsoft owns more than 100 retail stores that include full sized and specialty stores in countries like the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico listed on the Microsoft Store location page. Beyond these locations it does not have any retail store. During the presentation of the earnings of the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2014 the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella told The Wall Street Journal that he considered retail stores to be a supporting and not core business for the company. The company's focus was to work with Best buy and Staples to create dedicated Microsoft store within a store outlets.
According to ZdNet, at present Microsoft operates a specialty store in Columbus Circle in Manhattan, but it is not a full sized store. New York has its own full sized Microsoft retail store. Time Square too had its own full sized retail store when the Surface tablets were launched in 2012 by Microsoft. Unfortunately, the store was closed after a few months. Manhattan will now have its own full sized Microsoft retail outlet in the days to come.
