pop-up stores

For a big launch, Microsoft readies tiny holiday pop-up stores

It's lucky the Microsoft Surface RT is small, because Microsoft's coming pop-up stores look like they're going to be very compact.

Microsoft is planning to open 34 holiday pop-up stores in the U.S. and Canada. (The just-added two, announced this week by the company, are a Chicago and Times Square New York.) They are opening on October 26, the day that Windows 8 and Microsoft's Surface RT tablets/PCs are generally available.

I guess I was envisioning temporary full-size Microsoft stores -- like two-dozen-plus permanent brick-and-mortar stores they are operating already -- when I … Read more

Microsoft pop-up stores coming this holiday season

Microsoft officials said earlier this summer that they planned to open a number of temporary "pop-up" holiday stores this year. At the time, they didn't specify where these stores would be.

Braintree, Mass. Chicago (downtown) Cleveland, Ohio Manhattan, N.Y. Miami, Fla. Natick, Mass. Portland, Ore. San Antonio, Texas San Francisco St. Louis, Mo. Vancouver, B.C.

Microsoft Stores sell Windows PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft and third-party software, games, peripherals and more. Microsoft also is going to sell its recently announced Surface PC/tablets through its Microsoft Stores in the U.S. and through select online Microsoft … Read more

Apple saves SXSW, set to open pop-up store

Austin, Texas, is one of the most civilized cities in America. Except, I am told, when the South by Southwest Interactive Festival comes around. Then, youthful hubris mixed with inebriation can cause the odd ego-laden fracas.

Perhaps mindful of the need to maintain peace and harmony, Apple has, according to the Austin American-Statesman, decided to open a temporary pop-up store in downtown Austin.

SXSW Interactive, you see, part of the broader SXSW music and film event, starts tomorrow. That's precisely the day that the iPad 2 shows off its diminished weight and post-dietary sleekness.

So you can imagine what … Read more