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Microsoft to open first flagship Store beyond North America

Redmond reckons Sydney shop will be regional hub for Asia. Enjoy the long flight!

All the fun and excitement of Microsoft's wan clone of Apple Stores will soon be available beyond the United States for the first time, after the company announced it will open its first offshore store in Sydney, Australia.

Microsoft's billing the store as a flagship not just for Australia but “a center piece of the Microsoft store experience for the Asia Pacific region.” Microsoft's throwing everything at the store which it says will offer all of its products and services, an “Answer Desk” Genius Bar clone and pack that all into a split-level, 6,000 square foot space in the Westfield Mall on Sydney's shopping hub Pitt Street Mall.

That's about 200 metres from Apple's flagship store in Sydney. Your correspondent passes by the Cupertinian Embassy from time to time and it is nearly always heaving. The Microsoft Store I've beheld when visiting in San Francisco wasn't. The Sydney version will benefit from street frontage, and a location with more passing traffic than Apple's effort. Throw in the fact that Sydney has form with some Microsoft retail enthusiasm - folks queued at all hours to obtain Windows XP back in the day – and Microsoft has a shot.

But the claim the store will be a hub for the region needs debunking. Sydney attracts plenty of inbound tourists from Asia, but the region's true hubs are Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which are a few air hours away from billions of souls. The idea that a Microsoft Store will become a regional attraction Redmond or, as Microsoft says, “demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to the region”, is fanciful. It's just a shop, in an affluent city, in a centrally-located mall owned by a landlord that already hosts Microsoft stores in other cities.

The Store will be located next to mega-cosmetics chain Sephora, so at least it should smell nice. ®

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