Microsoft is slowly continuing to broaden availability of its Surface tablets.

On November 3, Microsoft officials announced the Surface Pro 3, its latest Intel-based Surface tablet, has met all General Services Administration (GSA) criteria, paving the way for U.S. federal, state and local organizations, plus federal civilian and defense agencies, to purchase Surface through GSA.

"One of the sectors that has expressed particular interest in Surface is U.S. government customers, which includes state and local organizations, as well as federal civilian and defense agencies," according to a November 3 post on the Surface blog announcing the news.



Interested government customers are advised to contact their Microsoft account reps or preferred resellers -- or to go to Surface.com/Ordernow and/or Surface.com/Government for details.

As part of the government distribution push, Microsoft is approving an unspecified number of additional resellers in the U.S. that meet the criteria required to sell to the public sector, officials said. The newly added resellers will be providing "value-added" Surface services, including asset tagging, custom imaging, kitting, onsite service and support, device recycling and data protection, Microsoft execs said.

Outside the U.S., Microsoft also is expanding the distributor channel for Surfaces in Japan and Hong Kong.