On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Microsoft might not have a retail presence in European markets yet-- but the performance of its stores in the US might be key to the company's retail entry in our lands.

According to the Financial Times Microsoft will open European stores sometime in 2013, but only following “an assessment of how its US stores are performing”.

It also reports Microsoft is in talks with landlords in the UK, where it has already registered a private limited company in preparation.

Microsoft is currently fairly aggressive when it comes to US retail-- during the holiday season it opened 32 pop-up stores (in 20 US states and 3 Canadian cities) as part of the Surface tablet launch.

Microsoft retail locations are fairly similar to Apple Stores and sell a variety of OEM hardware as well as Xbox, Windows and Surface products.

If the FT is correct, we will learn one fact from the Microsoft decision to take on European brick-and-mortal stores-- is its retail strategy is working or not?

Go Microsoft in Talks on European Stores (FT.com, registration required)

Amazon sells a record amount of Kindle devices as it introduces Black Friday in the EU-- Kindle sales from Amazon.co.uk were "more than three times higher" on 23 November than the previous record.

Keep in mind Amazon fails to provide hard sales numbers, giving only statements like " Black Friday was the biggest sales day ever for the Kindle Family" and "Kindle Fire [was] the bestselling product across all of Amazon.co.uk on Black Friday."

During 23-26 November the Kindle Fire cost £99, down from the usual £129.

"Black Friday" is the ominously named US post-Thanksgiving retail tradition slowly creeping towards the continent. Amazon UK holds Black Friday since 2010, and 2012 also sees the date taking place in France and Germany, with special offers aimed at driving Christmas sales.

Following Black Friday is Cyber Monday, a further date for lightning deals taking place on online shopping sites.

Go Biggest Sales Day Ever for Kindle Family on Black Friday

Darty no longer operates in Italy-- Italian electricals retailer DPS gets 20 Darty Italy stores and staff, together with a cash contribution worth €3 million for a 15% stake in DPS.

Darty retains responsibility for the closure of the Darty Italy head office, an operation the retailer estimates to cost around €11m.

"We have made good progress this year in reducing the losses in Italy through the closure of underperforming stores," a Darty statement reads. "However the current business is sub-scale, operating in a difficult market with the achievement of a profitable market position highly unlikely in the medium term."

Darty was having a difficult time in Italy-- Darty Italy revenues for fiscal 2011 (period ending April 2012) total €129m with €55.7m in operating losses, a sum including €36m in impairment charges and store closure costs.

Total retail losses since the 2005 Darty Italy launch to 30 April 2012 total €82m.

Fiscal H1 2012 (1 May - 31 October 2012) was also negative for Darty's "developing" regions-- Darty Italy, Turkey and Spain revenues drop by -2.6% in a situation the retailer describes as "challenging."

Go Proposed Disposal of Darty Italy

Go Darty Drops During H1 2012

The 2012 LG Smart TV with Google TV (G2 Series) lineup gets a couple of updates-- the latest Google TV version and access to the OnLive cloud gaming application.

New Google TV features include voice search, allowing users to bark out orders like "Breaking Bad!" to the LG Magic Remote microphone. The TV & Movies app gets a name change to "Google TV PrimeTime" and a choice of over 100000 movies and TV shows via content sources such as live TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and HBO Go.

Customers can also automatically pair Android mobile devices to LG G2 TVs via wifi, allowing the streaming of YouTube content from smartphone or tablet on the TV.

Meanwhile the OnLive app provides access (via either demo, purchase or rental) to around 200 games over the cloud, without the need for an additional console.

Go LG First to Launch Next Google TV Update