Interesting news. Over the years, my experience has been that Microsoft Stores have never had anything near the traffic of Apple Stores located nearby. And Google doesn’t have near the product range of Amazon.
I’m curious as well about what exactly this new storefront is for
My office is a couple of blocks away, so I’ll just have to wait and visit it myself.
I’m curious as well about what exactly this new storefront is for
My office is a couple of blocks away, so I’ll just have to wait and visit it myself.
I’m very interested in hearing a firsthand report about this. I can just imagine what it might sound like with everyone shrieking into Google Assistant speakers, asking refrigerators to pour them a glass of water, doors opening and shutting by voice command, etc. And with a million different models of Android phones and watches, how much better can the experience be than department or big box stores?
If it just features Pixel phones and other made by Google hardware, it will probably give Samsung, etc., conniption fits. Apple Stores feature Apple stuff, a few other products, classes, Genius Bars (by appointment), setup for new products, and increasingly, events. The Stores get crowded, but Apple’s limited product offerings keep them from descending into chaos.
Google has a decent set of hardware offerings - Pixel phones, Home line of speakers, Google WiFi, PixelBook Chromebooks, Chromecast, PixelBud earbuds, DayDream VR goggles, plus all of the Nest line of thermostats, smoke detectors, security system, cameras, and now doorbell that I doubt they’d have to feature any other company’s products.
Google has a decent set of hardware offerings - Pixel phones, Home line of speakers, Google WiFi, PixelBook Chromebooks, Chromecast, PixelBud earbuds, DayDream VR goggles, plus all of the Nest line of thermostats, smoke detectors, security system, cameras, and now doorbell that I doubt they’d have to feature any other company’s products.
I agree they have a broad enough product base so they wouldn’t have to feature stuff from other manufacturers. My thinking is that Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Xiaomi, etc., etc., who make a variety of devices and appliances sold in the US and around the world, aren’t going to be happy about not being represented in Google’s stores. It was rumored around the time Microsoft opened their stores that they did so because of pressure from hardware manufacturers due to the success of Apple Stores.
Well if I were Google I’d say nothing but ‘so what’. It’s not like Xiaomi or any other cheap Chinese hack shop is going to come up with a decent iOS/Android competitor on its own. Samsung has been talking for years about doing just that and so far… Yeah, talk. :D
And they’ve a top flight range of technologies they can showcase. Their creative labs work alone is stellar.