Microsoft Plans Mini-Stores in Best Buy

Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.) and Best Buy (Richfield, Minn.) on Thursday announced a plan to create 600 Windows stores within existing Best Buy retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, reports The New York Times. The Windows stores, at 1500 to 2200 square feet, will be the biggest stores-within-a-store at Best Buy, which has similar dedicated areas for Samsung and Apple products.

The partnership is an effort to give a lift to Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system, which has failed to reverse declines in shipments of personal computers since it came out last fall, reports The New York Times. Microsoft is investing much more heavily in the retail side of the business, where Apple has a distinct advantage with its stores.

Microsoft currently has almost 70 Microsoft-owned retail stores, about 30 of which are pop-up stores in shopping malls and other locations.

Since Windows already runs on the vast majority of personal computers sold in Best Buy stores today, the deal between the companies is really a renovation of the stores’ existing computer departments. Walls will be decorated with Windows logos and spacious new tables will display Windows computers.