Australia has Apple stores, concept retail stores and even a new Samsung store is on its way, but we’re unlikely to see any Microsoft-branded stores for some time down here. That’s usually been no problem in the past, considering that the company just sold stuff via retail partners. This is an interesting tidbit though straight from Sheeds at WPDownUnder: apparently, the Surface tablet is set to be an online-only product in Australia.
WPDownUnder reports via a source that although Australia will be a launch market for the hotly-anticipated Surface, it’ll only be sold through Microsoft’s-own online store.
If it’s true, it means that Microsoft isn’t just competing with its traditional hardware partners, it’s also competing with retail partners. Oh my. [WPDownUnder]