Microsoft To Open Flagship Store In Sydney; Continues To Focus On Australia

After Apple and Samsung, it is Microsoft that has announced to open its first flagship store outside North America in Sydney. Microsoft that already has more than 110 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, besides 17 store-in-store locations in China and online stores across 189 countries, will be establishing its first flagship store outside North America, as per latest reports.

Customers can spot the store at Westfield Sydney on Pitt Street Mall, next to the Sephora store, reports ZDNet. Customers can buy a range of Microsoft products like Windows Phones, Windows PCs, Xbox One consoles, Surface devices and Office software. The flagship store also has an Answer Desk where customers can avail support for all software and hardware of Microsoft and Windows products that were purchased from other place, as per the ZDNet report.

This is not the first time for Microsoft to invest in Australia. Last year, in October, the company launched the Azure Geo and few days back, the company made Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online available to its local data centres. Apart from that, the company also opened the Microsoft Innovation Centre in South Australia.

“This is a significant development for our business locally as well as globally and is the latest in a series of Microsoft investments in Australia -- last October we opened our Microsoft Australia Azure Geo and just a few weeks ago we bought Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online to our local data centres. We also recently opened another Microsoft Innovation Centre in South Australia and we continue to support Australia’s not-for-profit community by giving $50 million in software donations last year alone,” Pip Marlow, Managing Director at Microsoft Australia, said in the company’s blog post.

A Herald Sun report says, both New York and Sydney flagship stores are expected to open in time for Christmas. Jonathan Adashek, General Manager, Communications Strategy for Microsoft stores told ZDNet that, the company had been planning to open its flagship store in Sydney for quite some time but was looking for the right space.

The opening of the flagship store in Sydney will complement the upcoming flagship store of Microsoft in Manhattan, ZDNet quoted David Porter, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Worldwide Retail Stores, as saying.

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