2 big announcements to unveil today:

First, I’m happy to announce that we have added Fully Packaged Products (FPP) to our catalogs in our existing Microsoft Store in both the United Kingdom and Germany.  With this huge change, total number of available products nearly doubles in both stores.

Secondly, we have launched Microsoft Store to our 6th country today by launching Microsoft Store Netherlands!  With this launch, you’re able to buy Windows and Office products both in fully packaged products (FPP) as well as by ESD.  The catalog in our Netherlands store is admittedly smaller than the rest of our international Microsoft Stores, but as demonstrated with our other store instances, we’re committed to adding more and more products to our catalog over time.  So stay tuned for more products.

Today we shut down Windows Marketplace as an ecommerce site and transitioned it to a referral site that provides access to the large ecosystem of Microsoft products and partner products that were available on Marketplace. 

In place of the familiar Windows Marketplace homepage is now a new landing page that points you to various places where you can find the best Microsoft partner products. 

For existing customers that previously purchased products on Windows Marketplace, your purchase history and downloads are still available in your digital locker.  I encourage you to visit the new landing page and read the information on how to transition away from digital locker.

Naturally, you can always go to Microsoft Store to find Microsoft products :) 

I’ll be the first to admit that I questioned the hype about Twitter when it first launched, and was vehemently opposed to those infamous 140 character updates.  However, fast forward nearly a year and I’ve seen the benefits of micro-blogging to stay up to speed on the latest tech trends, what’s going on with my friends and even as an engagement point with customers for Microsoft Store.  It’s also very freeing to be able to write “micro-thoughts” without committing to a full blog post.

In addition to posting tweets multiple times a day on my personal account, I just started up a separate Twitter account for Microsoft Store.  It’s a good way to follow Microsoft Store news minus my personal ramblings on my real account.

I’ll try not to take it as a personal blow to my ego if you choose to only follow Microsoft Store, but we can mitigate the risk of that by just following us both

Microsoft Store at http://www.twitter.com/microsoftstore.

Me at http://www.twitter.com/trevs.

There has been lots of questions and follow-up buzz about the Microsoft Store launch last week. Thanks to everyone that has taken time to contact me by email, twitter or in blog comments.

One question that has come up consistently has to do with the pricing of products as compared to other online retailers. Some of you have asked why Microsoft is charging full price for our products – I’ve even heard from some folks in the community that they see this as evidence that Microsoft is trying to gouge customers.

I just wanted to address this issue head on and let you know that nothing could be farther from the truth. As many of you know, Microsoft has a deep retail channel presence and a long history of working very closely with partners. As with most consumer products, pricing will vary from reseller to reseller but it is standard practice for direct sales from manufacturers to be priced at manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). That’s why our prices look higher.

The obvious question is why would anyone buy the same product at a higher price?

First, there are many customers who have asked for the option of buying direct from Microsoft. Microsoft Store provides them not only that choice, but also the ability to develop a relationship directly with Microsoft.

Secondly, the ability to purchase via ESD (electronic software distribution) is also very compelling to a lot of customers who want the convenience and instant gratification of instant download, ability to re-download in the future, and perpetual storage of product keys.

I hope this helps address the questions around pricing. As always, if you have questions, drop a comment or find me on twitter.

Hot on the heels of the launch of Microsoft Store US last Thursday, we’re happy to announce that Microsoft Store Japan is now available!

This brings Microsoft Store to 5 countries (US, Korea, UK, Germany and now Japan).  We’re expecting to launch soon in Spain, Netherlands and France so stay tuned for those.