Is This the Week That Best Buy Bounces Back?

Change may finally pay off for Best Buy (NYS: BBY) this week.

A look through the consumer electronics retailer's Sunday circular promises a busy week.

The fun begins tonight, as many stores will open at midnight for the video game release of Electronic Arts' (NAS: EA) Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Microsoft's (NAS: MSFT) Forza Horizon.

Microsoft figures to be a big player this week for Best Buy, but it's not necessarily because of the new car racing game. The entire front page of Best Buy's circular -- and several other pages beyond that -- are devoted to the onslaught of Windows laptops, PCs, tablets, and smartphones that will go on sale on Friday.

You won't find Microsoft's Surface at Best Buy on Friday. Despite all of the buzz, the software giant is incredulously only selling its tablet through its limited namesake stores and through its website. Then again, maybe that's not such a bad strategy in case Surface starts to sputter.

However, both Microsoft and Best Buy hope that the revolutionary Windows 8 operating system will breathe new life into sluggish PC sales.

A major component of Windows 8 is that it will be very tablet-centric. It isn't a surprise to find that all but one of the Windows 8 devices featured on the front page of Best Buy's print ad -- a $329 Samsung laptop -- come with touchscreens.

Will consumers be hesitant to begin smearing their laptops and desktop monitors with their greasy fingers, or have the past few years of tablet education spoiled consumers to the point where screens were meant to be touched by default?

We'll find out soon enough. Best Buy and its peers hope that shoppers are willing to take a chance on upgrading their hardware as a quick fix to recent hard times.

Best Buy is not a good buy
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The article Is This the Week That Best Buy Bounces Back? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Aristotle Munarriz has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Best Buy and Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Best Buy, Best Buy, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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