“An extremely reliable source has confirmed to us that Google is in the process of building stand-alone retail stores in the U.S. and hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the holidays in major metropolitan areas,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9to5MGoogle.
“The mission of the stores is to get new Google Nexus, Chrome, and especially upcoming products into the hands of prospective customers,” Weintraub reports. “Google competitors Apple and Microsoft both have retail outlets where customers can try before they buy. ”
Weintraub reports, “Google currently has Chrome Store-within-a-store models in hundreds of Best Buys in the U.S. and 50 PCWorld/Dixon’s in the U.K.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gideon” for the heads up.]
These stores should workout well if focused upon Google’s corporate strength.
You walk into the store, give them all your personal information, they give you a pittance in return and then sell the info to the highest bidder. Sounds like a workable plan.
Actually, tom, they return not a pittance but great value in exchange for your personal information. That’s because the value they deliver—all the information in the world, contextualized and tailored to you personally—is an economic good prized by every person curious about anything whatsoever, and it’s the reason for Google’s success. Their corporate strength lies in the skill with which they provide this service algorithmically, deliberately addicting you to its benefits, combined with the brilliant auction model they employ to maximize their income from advertisers competing to find the choicest suckers to pitch their product to.
They’ve slapped a happy face on it all, and still pretend to be the good guys, but they’ve revealed themselves to be nothing better than the Internet equivalent of Professor Moriarty–a criminal mastermind regulating a vast network of drug dealers, pickpockets, and thieves.
My guess is that they’ll open stores in the locations where they are offering high speed internet access.
And while I’ll acknowledge they have smart people working for them, I must be missing something when it comes to stores: Handset booths, kiosks and stores are a dime a dozen. So would they differentiate themselves with a genius bar rip off? That sort of begs the question: Does the average Joe know his phone is powered by Android and that Android is a Google product?
Perhaps it has to do with impending arrival of Glass. But I still wonder about that project, from the perspective that few businesses would allow the all-seeing eye of Google to see within their building, which implies rules against wearing Glass inside the building, which translates to nuisance and less than 100% reliability on the basic Glass premise.
They will not need a Genius Bar. Android users are tech-savvy and already know all the answers. Or so they claim…
I use an iPad mini and for a couple of days now, your articles appear in the middle of the page and I can’t view the top of the article. I can pull it down to view some of it but when I release the screen, the article moves back above up and is no longer viewable. This problem is in both landscape and portraits. It makes your page unusable.
CAN YOU HELP?
“Google currently has Chrome Store-within-a-store models in hundreds of Best Buys in the U.S. and 50 PCWorld/Dixon’s in the U.K.”
I assume they’re talking about Chrome OS laptops. Does anyone actually BUY Chrome OS portable WebTVs? If so, WHY? I’m attempting to be serious. You pay for capable laptop hardware then hobble yourself with Chrome OS?
And if no one really is buying these Chrome OS portable WebTVs, then what business sense is behind creating dedicated Google stores to sell them? Doesn’t this fit the definition of FAIL Boat?
The word ‘desperate’ comes to mind. Have fun with that Google. 😕
Oh yes and make these stores with huge glass facades and beautiful glass staircase and android experts (?) dressed in blue tshirts.. and then sue Apple for copying you guys…hahaha
I think they’ll copy the new Microshaft stores…