Microsoft will stand up 32 brick and mortar stores in North America this holiday season to help sell its new Surface tablet.
The pop-up stores are scheduled to open on Oct. 26 in cities across the U.S. and Canada as special locations open only during the holiday season.
"We can't wait for you to take home Surface," Microsoft said on its official store site. "You'll find it and a curated selection of the latest Microsoft products at any of our Holiday Stores."
The 32 temporary locations include new stores in New York City, San Francisco, Denver, Miami, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Pittsburg, Charlotte, San Antonio, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Countdown to launch
The Surface tablet will launch on Oct. 26 alongside the pop-up store openings, with a launch event scheduled the day before in New York.
Surface will have competition right out of the gate, as the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, Dell XPS 10, and Dell Latitude 10 will mark the first run of OEM Windows 8 tablets on the same day.
The pop-up stores will act as one-stop shops for anything Windows 8 related this holiday season, including a selection of laptops and desktops on display in addition to tablets.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recently put the new OS through its paces and gave it his blessing, though called it confusing in some respects.
Early user impressions were more mixed, with more than half of Windows 8 users saying they still prefer Windows 7 in a recent survey.
Those still on the fence about Windows 8 and Surface are running out of time to make up their mind, with the imminent launch only three short weeks away.
Via ZDNet