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No Microsoft store for New Zealand? Don't fret.
Thu, 23rd Apr 2015
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Tech giant Microsoft yesterday announced it would open its first flagship store for the APAC region in Sydney.

The store, located on Pitt Street Mall, will provide customers with the same products and services that are currently online and offered in similar Microsoft stores in the U.S.

While this is exciting news for Australian consumers, it looks as though Microsoft has no plans to launch a similar store on this side of the Tasman any time soon.

“This is great news for this region, and especially for Kiwis in Australia who will be able to access the MS Store experience,”  David Rayner, Microsoft New Zealand's director of consumer channels group, says.

“While there are no plans to open something similar in New Zealand at this time, we will continue to work very closely with our New Zealand partners to ensure Kiwis at home also get the best possible opportunity to explore all that our technology can do for them at their local retail store,” he says.

The Australian store is a significant development for the company and is the latest in a series of investments in Australia following the launch of Azure in in the country late last year, and bringing Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online to Microsoft's local data centers earlier this year.

Microsoft currently has more than 110 physical stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, 17 store-in-store locations in China, and online stores in 189 countries.

An official opening date for the Sydney flagship store has not yet been confirmed.

“Having the new Microsoft flagship store so close to New Zealand will provide a great opportunity for Kiwis travelling to Sydney to browse the best products from Microsoft and our partners in addition to personally experiencing all that Microsoft technology can do for them,” Rayner adds.