For anyone who has been hoping to pick up the Surface for the holidays, Microsoft (News - Alert) has announced welcoming news today. The company has made the decision to sell its tablet through retailers, making it easier for people across the country to get their hands on one of the new, highly-advertised tablets.

Since its introduction, Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet has only been available through Microsoft’s online store or Microsoft pop-up stores. Despite its limited availability, the tablet has quickly become a widely talked about item. With the final shopping days before Christmas just around the corner, Microsoft has announced that they will be selling the Surface outside of their proprietary locations, although they have declined to answer which retailers will be carrying the new hot-ticket item. According to the Huffington Post, Staples (News - Alert) Inc. may be carrying the tablet by mid-week.


Image via www.microsoft.com

Although the tablets are definitely in the public eye, some sources suggest that Microsoft’s decision to open their tablet up to retailers has less to do with their popularity and more to do with their lackluster sales. As noted in Information Week, analysts think that this has a lot to do with lack of distribution.

The company paints a different picture, not that their strategy to be the sole source for purchasing the Surface failed, but, instead, that they are expanding to more retailers because they have ramped up production. The general manager of Microsoft’s Surface Project, Panos Panay, said that, “We’ve increased production and are expanding the ways in which customers can interact with, experience, and purchase Surface.”

This may just be the right decision for Microsoft, since sales have fallen short of what they expected, but interest and excitement about the tablet has remained high. With 12 shopping days left before Christmas, this decision may prove to be a very profitable one.

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