Microsoft starts work on Windows retail stores

Scottsdale and Mission Viejo work begins

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7 August 2009 22:44 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Microsoft has started building its first retail stores in the US Scottsdale Arizona and Mission Viejo, California.

The two Microsoft retail stores will be the first of a promised many as the company tries to emulate Apple's success with the Apple Store.

Although the picture from the company's official twitter account doesn't give any information as to what the stores will be like on the inside, it does show that the company will be pushing its brands.

Logos show Windows 7, bing, Office, Xbox 360 and Zune decorating the hording suggesting the inside could have zones areas to showcase Microsoft products.

Last month a senior Microsoft executive has revealed that, in a somewhat confrontational move, those shops will be near existing Apple Stores, with the first premises to open in the States in autumn.