Microsoft expansion into third-party stores after flagging sales Panay did not mention names of retailers that will sell the Surface, but separately office equipment retailer Staples said it would stock the tablet from Wednesday in the US. Since the launch in late October, the Surface has only been sold by Microsoft itself, in its North American retail stores and online in Australia, China, France, the UK and Germany. The only Surface model available now - officially called Surface with Windows RT - runs a version of Windows created to work on the low-power chips designed by ARM Holdings, which dominate smartphones and tablets but are incompatible with old Windows applications. The Surface is sold at prices starting from £399 in the UK. A larger, heavier tablet - called Surface with Windows 8 Pro - will be introduced in January and will run with all Microsoft's Windows and Office applications. The world's largest software company also said it would keep its chain of 'pop-up' holiday stores open into the new year and will convert them into permanent retail outlets or what it called "specialty store locations." Microsoft's recent push into physical retail - following Apple's great success - has resulted in 31 permanent stores plus 34 holiday "pop-up' stores in the U.S. and Canada. If Microsoft converted each of the temporary stores into permanent outlets it would have 65 stores, still well below Apple with almost 400 worldwide.