In Western Europe, one of the biggest chains to sell smartphones is a company known — somewhat hysterically, given that no one has bought a dedicated carphone for fifteen years — as the Carphone Warehouse. But there will now be 60 less Carphone Warehouse stores in Europe… thanks to Samsung, who have snapped them up with the intention of turning them into dedicated Samsung Stores. And as a bonus? The deal will help Samsung challenge Apple’s retail dominance in Europe.

According to a company press release, Carphone Warehouse will continue to operate the sixty stores in question, but they’ll only sell Samsung’s products, including “products across Samsung’s full range of mobiles, tablets, laptops and wearables.”

The stores will allegedly be transformed in the next three months into Samsung retail stores with a “premium look and feel.” These locations will be located in UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and the Netherlands

These won’t be the first Samsung stores in Europe. Samsung already has a few standalone stores in Europe, including three Samsung pilot stores in Spain, but as The Verge notes, the 60 new Samsung Stores will help the Korean electronics maker better compete with Apple’s 100 European retail outlets.

• SourceCarphone Warehouse