Buying those Windows 8 Surface tablets might be a bit easier next year when Microsoft will have more than double the current number of Microsoft Stores in place across the U.S.

CEO Steve Ballmer said in an interview this week that the company will sell Surface devices only online or at the stores, with no special arrangements for its partners to by them. So if a VAR or integrator wants to package Surface PCs as part of a contract, they'll have to drop by a store or order online just like everybody else at the same price.

The two models of the sleek Surface devices are due out in October, and perhaps having fewer stores will make for longer lines outside each the day they actually go on sale.

Microsoft says it will have 44 Microsoft Stores in place by this time next year. Currently 20 stores are open and eight more are "coming soon," according to the company's store locator site. No word on where the other 16 will be, although there is one report that say Toronto will be among them and the first outside the U.S.