Microsoft plans to open 75 new Microsoft stores in the next two to three years. A map of the locations show that many will be concentrated in the northeastern United States, California, and Florida. The company also plans to open stores outside the United States as well. Currently, Microsoft has 11 stores open in the United States.

This will not be easy for Microsoft. They will be chasing Apple, which has more than 320 stores, including 86 abroad. The irony here is that Microsoft was once ahead of Apple on the retail front, opening its first retail store in 1999 at the Metreon shopping center in San Francisco. Microsoft abandoned the effort by closing the store a little more than two years later. After witnessing Apple's retail success, Microsoft revived the store strategy in 2009.

Microsoft has multiple platforms: Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft's argument to be able to compete with Apple is based on their ability to unify its ecosystem in a way that Apple can't, and that it has the capability to enhance those products with cloud-based services.

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