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Google Opens First Retail Outlet In London
theodp writes "Google is following in the footsteps of Apple and Microsoft. The London Evening Standard reports that the world's first 'Google Store' has opened in a PC World on London's gadget street, Tottenham Court Road. Officially known as 'the Chromezone,' the 285sq. ft. pop-up 'shop within a shop,' which only sells Google's Chromebook laptop and a few accessories such as headphones, will run for three months up to Christmas. But if the low-key experiment is successful, Google could follow Apple in opening permanent stores around the world. 'It is our first foray into physical retail,' said Google's Arvind Desikan. 'This is a new channel for us and it's still very, very early days. It's something Google is going to play with and see where it leads.'"
Microsoft thanks you for contribution.
If you had RTFA, you would see that they are going to sell Chromebooks and things to go with them like headphones. Yeah, it would have been a great idea to put it in the summary, too bad they didn't... No, wait, there it is. In the summary:
What I want to know is what other computers one can get for 349 pounds.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
People interested in checking it out should use the Warren st. tube station rather than TCR.
I think the Nexus One would have been a lot more successful if they had physical stores... I mean I'm still using mine and love it (it's a device you can really get attached to, despite its flaws and that it's outdated) but I've only ever seen one other one in the wild (other than at Maker Faire SF, where dozens of Google employees were using them).
Also, it would have been nice to have someplace to check out and buy the accessories and so on, especially on short notice when necessary.
Despite the fact that you can do everything online these days, there truly is still a major role for retail to play. I would be reluctant to buy a new and unusual computer like the Chromebook without being able to try one myself (as I'm sure people are with Apple products if they haven't used them before), so this will probably be a good strategy for them.
Why aren't such stores obsolete yet? This is an honest question. Especially for Google, that has online access to billions of customers worldwide, what would such a store offer? For Apple it worked because part of their marketing strategy is to dazzle you with fancy plastic. Is Google trying to do the same?
If there was a Google store in my neighborhood, I would probably drop by out of curiosity. However, whenever I go to an electronics retail store the salesperson ends up ordering the stuff I need anyway because they don't have what I want in stock (and, with my luck, even if they once did they would have probably run out). OK, if all you have to offer is 2-3 versions of the same hardware, your stock will always be up-to-date. However, I still don't see any good enough reason for embracing the costs and the trouble of physical retail sale.
Ah, it's the me-too company again.
AltaVista: we do search!
Google: me too!
Hotmail: we do online mail
Google: me too!
Nokia: We do smartphones
Apple: we do too, and added touch and apps
Google: me too! and we added nothing.
Sun: We do Java
Google: Me too! Allegedly.
Everyone: We do instant messaging
Google: Me too!
Facebook: We do social
Google: Me too!
Sony/Apple: We do brand-specific shops
MS & now Google: me too!
Bah. I will never understand the love geeks give to this copycat advertising company.
It is funny to have a store for the people that are not the customers. We are google's product, the advertisers and the carriers are the customers.
--ditkin
What I want to know is what other computers one can get for 349 pounds.
For £349, you could very decent laptop... This being Slashdot, I kinda skimmed TFA rather than actually reading it, but are they seriously selling the Chromebook for that much money? That's ridiculous. I was able to buy a 3lb 13" ultraportable for about £250 ($400 CAD), and if I'd had another $150 in the budget for it, I could have upgraded it quite nicely. And that's not even considering other form factors that are a lot cheaper, like a 14" or a 15" laptop where you're not as concerned about weight.
COURT ROAD, Tottenham, Friday (NTN) — Internet advertising agency Google is opening its first retail store, selling the Internet-only Chromebook.
"We've put a lot of effort into making it feel welcoming, homely and, dare I say it, 'Googley'," said Arvind Desikan, head of consumer marketing. The revolutionary shopping experience leverages Google's famous abilities in customer service, having no staff. Customers seeking advice on a product can simply log in with their Google account to the in-store forum, where they and other customers can assist each other.
"People will be able to go in and have a play with the devices, so they can get a feel for what it's about and we can monitor their reaction." Persons seeking entry to the store must give their bank account name and glue an RFID tag to their forehead, so as to create a suitably decorous shopping environment, "just like in real life." Should they be discovered to be using a name the Google Identity algorithm considers unlikely, they will be ejected mid-purchase and their GMail and Android phone disabled, for their comfort and convenience.
The store is in Tottenham Court Road, so as to select for the valuable demographic of people who want shiny things and are willing to pay a hundred quid more than they would for an ordinary netbook that does more. A second store will be opened in Lakeside for customers of similar discernment.
The Google store still anticipates more customers than the Microsoft stores. Rumours of the purchase of a Windows 7 phone somewhere in Britain are as yet unconfirmed, despite investigations by sceptics' organisations.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
When Apple decided to build their own retail operation, they had a problem to solve. Existing retailers were doing a very poor job of presenting their products. I remember a time where if you saw a Mac at all at a store that sold PCs, it was usually missing a few keys from the keyboard, and if it was powered up, it was flashing the "sad mac" icon. There were a handful of Mac-only resellers who did a better job of it, but there certainly weren't enough of them. Retail was crucial to Apple's survival.
For an outfit like Google or Microsoft, retail is just something they think they should do because Apple did it.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
There's no such thing as "less-is-more branding". Less is more is an attribute of good design. Brand is an assurance of quality.
Actually the iPod did far more. It had an ecosystem that included software on the PC to manage and sync music files, and soon after to purchase, download and sync to the MP3 player with minimal user intervention. That's all far more than simply mounting the MP3 player as a drive, and leaving the file management as a task for the user to do.
The "less" involved was less for the user to have to do. Less for the user to worry about. That, together with the attractive industrial design were reasons for the iPod to take off. People bought it despite it's higher cost because it was a better value proposition.
Now of course Apple has a brand that assures people of a high quality product. But that brand was (re)made largely by the iPod (after the nadir of the brand in the 1990s.)
As to Google, they have a quality brand in search, for largely the same reasons - they do a lot of quality engineering behind the scenes, but put it behind a simple to use but quality user interface.
But their brand doesn't transfer too well to most other things they do. Except perhaps email. Certainly not to hardware. They'd have to extend the brand into that market. It's not impossible, but the odds are against them.
The tech exchange rate is more like £1 to $1.
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
Prices don't translate that easily. A price in American dollars often means the same in euros and only slightly less in pounds. Something our North American /, crowd seems to forget.