Dive Brief:

• Microsoft opened a flagship store in Manhattan on Monday, just a few blocks from Apple's Fifth Avenue store.

• The company simultaneously began selling its Surface Book laptop and Surface Pro 4 tablet.

• There are more than 100 Microsoft stores, but the new one, at 22,000 square feet, is the biggest.

Dive Insight:

The new store, which will display the new Surface Book laptop and Surface Pro 4 tablet, led some analysts to observe Microsoft may be looking to emulate Apple, whom it has lagged behind for years when it comes to cool tech tools.

But Microsoft's new Surface Book appears to have caught the attention of both businesses and consumers. So many pre-orders were recently received that the Microsoft Store quit accepting them a few weeks ago.

The Surface Book includes a special hinge that allows it to twist into a slate or "snap apart to serve as a tablet." The Surface Book weighs just 3.5 lbs., has a 13.5-in. high-resolution display, an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and solid-state storage space ranging from 128GB to 1TB.

Gartner estimates "hybrid ultramobiles" like the Surface Book will continue to be the fastest growing segment of the mobile PC market in 2015.