Microsoft challenges Apple with British flagship store

Microsoft is going to open its first European store in London’s commercial centre, “coincidentally” just a stone’s throw away from the local Apple Store.

Interactive space

The American tech giant will open a 2,000 sqm store on Oxford Street on 11 July. On London’s prime shopping location, customers will be able to test the latest Microsoft technologies, follow courses and have products repaired. The store is advertised as being a huge interactive space, where enormous video walls are the main eyecatchers.

Opening its own network of stores should allow Microsoft to demonstrate to both consumers and companies its move away from being only a software firm to a company that has hardware such as laptops, tablets, game consoles and virtual reality applications. This puts the company in the same area as for example Apple, making the fact that the Microsoft Store is just a minute walking away from the famous Apple store in Regent Street rather unlikely to be a coincidence. As a matter of fact, in New York too the flagship stores of both tech mammoths are almost neighbours.