Microsoft Store Opening Oct. 26 at Columbia Mall
Store will sell Microsoft software, electronics and games.
This article has been updated to include information about the opening of the store.
Microsoft announced Wednesday they will officially open their Microsoft "pop-up store" in the Columbia Mall on Oct. 26.
Original Article - Sept. 10
Microsoft announced this week the company will be opening a store at the Mall in Columbia for the holidays.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the store will open this fall and close after the holidays, but did not provide exact dates.
Like the now ubiquitous (and insanely profitable) Apple stores, Microsoft is gearing up its retail operations to sell its popular software, such as Windows and Office, Xbox video game products and electronic devices.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the stores will provide a premium retail experience, "allowing customers to interact with Microsoft-enabled products that impact the way we live, work and play."
The store will be set up very similar to the way an Apple store is, with laptops, games and devices set up on long tables in the store with floating employees ready to help and engage with potential customers, based on pictures of the stores on Microsoftstore.com.
Slate technology writer Farhad Manjoo described a Microsoft store as an "unabashed" rip-off of an Apple store, but wrote the shops are fun.
"The [Xbox] consoles are always mobbed by kids, and because the Kinect is set up next to the front window, there's always a show for passers-by," wrote Manjoo. "It's an inviting spectacle—kids in odd poses having fun—and should be just as big a draw as cardboard cutouts of the new iPad."
A Microsoft critic on CNET wrote the new Microsoft Boston store impressed him.
The Boston location, which opened in August, was the 23rd Microsoft store to open permanently. Thirty additional stores will open for the holidays, according to Microsoft. Besides Columbia, a store will also open for the holidays in Bethesda, which will be the only two in Maryland. A permanent location is already in place in Washington, D.C.
Will you check out the new Microsoft store? Tell us in comments.
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Nicole McFarland
1:09 pm on Monday, September 10, 2012
Temporary? We need a permanent store in Maryland, so I don't have to drive to Tyson's Corner every time I have issues with my Windows Phone. Still, I'm excited to hear this news, and I hope that holiday sales prove to Microsoft that Columbia is a good location to place a permanent store.
Eric Ruck
10:51 am on Sunday, October 28, 2012
Who has issues with Windows Phones? Mine's been flawless for the year I've owned it.
Chris T. Gaines
3:45 pm on Monday, September 10, 2012
"...every time I have issues with my Windows Phone.."
Why I no longer own any Microsoft products, in a nutshell.
Michaelwritescode
4:44 pm on Monday, September 10, 2012
Yeah! Apple products are manufactured with pixie sweat so they're immune to problems... or are those child laborers? But hey as long as you buy a new one every year to escape the planned obsolescence you're golden!
H.R. Pufnstuf
5:09 pm on Monday, September 10, 2012
MWC- are those "child laborors" better off unemployed? I think working for Apple is better than starvation.
Nicole McFarland
8:38 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Well, since you asked the issue was with the HTC hardware not the Windows Phone software, and not only did Microsoft give me the first phone for free, they replaced it for free when the hardware had problems. Apple would have done that as well, minus the free phone in the first place, and I have benifitted from a replacement iPhone from them before. My complaint is that I like the Microsoft store and I wish it was closer, not that I have issues with my phone.
Susan Kuning
11:26 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Not to mention that I have more problems with my iPhone than with my laptop. iTunes routinely refuses to save files. After fixing this many times in the last few years, I've given up on syncing my phone. My next phone is likely to be something else.