Microsoft has announced that its Surface tablets will be available from more retailers within the next few days. Customers in the US and Australia will be able to buy Surfaces from non-Microsoft outlets from mid-December, with extended availability in other countries coming in the next few months. The first such retailer to be confirmed is Staples, and it will start selling Surfaces on December 12th.

Update: Now Best Buy has confirmed that it'll be selling the devices too. They'll be available online from the 12th, in-store from the 16th of December.

To meet demand for the devices, the company has also announced that it has ordered its manufacturing partners to increase production and build more units, contradicting reports last month that it had scaled back orders.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in November that the company planned to expand Surface's availability. These plans have been brought forward, with Steve Schueler, corporate vice president, Microsoft Retail Sales and Marketing, saying, "Our plan has been to expand the retail presence for Surface after the first of the year. Based on interest from retailers, we are giving them the option to carry Surface with Windows RT even earlier."

Microsoft is also expanding its own series of retail stores. The company opened a number of temporary stores on October 26th for the holiday season. All of these stores will be kept open into next year and a number of them will now be converted into permanent retail locations.