“When it comes to innovative brick-and-mortar retail concepts, it’s hard to argue with the success of the Apple retail store, which was first launched in 2001,” Dominic Basulto reports for The Washington Post. “While the Apple store concept may not be as buzzy as when it launched more than a decade ago, the fact remains that not a single tech competitor has been able to come up with a retail concept superior to it.”
Basulto reports, “So, when Google announced that it was establishing a series of Winter Wonderlab pop-up stores across the country for the holidays, it was only natural to ask: Had Google finally created a radically new retail concept to challenge Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores?”
“Based on my early experiences at Google’s Winter Wonderlab in New York’s Bryant Park, the answer is no,” Basulto reports. “The entire design concept for the Winter Wonderlab seems borrowed from Apple, including the way the products are laid out and presented, the minimalist feel of the space, and even the pastel T-shirts worn by the staff. While it’s nice that Google has simplified its product line to only focus on a few offerings – the Nexus 7, the Chromebook, Google Chromecast and Google Play — even this seems like a nod to Apple, which has one of the most simplified product lines in the tech world. The overall design of Google’s store — a glass cube across from the ice skating rink in Bryant Park, too, seems borrowed from Apple’s glass cube flagship store on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
