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Google Watchers Expect Company-Branded Stores This Year
9to5Google cites "an extremely reliable source" in reporting 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. The mission of the stores is to get new Google Nexus, Chrome, and especially upcoming products into the hands of prospective customers. Google feels right now that many potential customers need to get hands-on experience with its products before they are willing to purchase. Google competitors Apple and Microsoft both have retail outlets where customers can try before they buy."
Copying Apple is becoming a habit.
"It's a monopoly, it's a monopoly..." screech the Pro-Apple-Anti-Microsoft and Pro-Microsoft-Anti-Apple fanboys
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Ubuntu £inux is the next step in brand name stores. First they sell you a phone to create a monopoly and they force you to use their Ubuntu Only Linux Steam Client to play games. Then they restrict you from playing hit releases such as Aliens: Colonial Marines because they "don't work on Linux" and sell you World of Goo instead. Ubuntu is far more dangerous than google. Ubuntu has hijacked the PC industry and threatening long standing infrastructure. Microsoft is doing their best to prevent Ubuntu from becoming the first major monopoly in computing history but it isn't enough. Ubuntu may look free, but it is a lie! The cost to your productivity and soul is eternal.
where the answer to ever customer question begins with "So...."
Looks to me that this is a phony account and journal spam (which, by the way is averaging over 250 adverts a day) is spilling over onto the front page..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I went to Northgate Mall in Seattle three weeks ago looking to get either a Nexus 4 or a Samsung galaxy s3.
Samsung products were everywhere.
The only place I could find a Nexus 4 was the Tmobile store, and yes, what tipped me to the Nexus was trying it out.
There was an unaffiliated tablet/phone store elsewhere in the mall that had a Nexus 7 and maybe a 10, but you had to look hard for them.
It still seems weird that you would need to open a whole store as opposed to striking deals for retail space for your stuff, though.
If I can't find what I'm looking for in 0.254 seconds, I'm out of that store again.
Bert
Spoiled brat
Who bets that there are ads in the store
They are like the kid who cheats in class by looking over the smart kid's shoulder. First it was Yahoo!, then it was Keyhole, Android, YouTube (until they bought them) they tried to copy Facebook, Office, etc...
I think you need to keep up. Apple copied the mp3 player; microsoft copied the console; Facebook copied the phone; Amazon copied the tablet. etc etc. Maybe its not copying at all, but large mega-corporations entering related established markets with near monopoly status, and high barriers of entry [lots and lots of cash], and sometimes its works out really well product.
I wonder whether Apple has patented the idea?
If not, they really should have. As you have pointed out this another instance of Google flagrantly copying an Apple innovation. Release the lawyers!
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/patents-apple-store/
If Apple (and to a lesser extent, Microsoft) didn't have stores, do you still think Google would see them as necessary?
I doubt it.
I'm disagree, the need to showcase your *brand* has become more important than electronics themselves, and what better way to showcase the products than having a dedicated shop.
Google sees self-driving cars in 3-5 years; Washington, insurers not so sure:
This is suicide for google, and a traditional play by managers with no imagination who want to show that they can do things in an environment which is dominated by technical types that they can't and won't understand. This is money better spent by infiltrating the educational space or keeping margins lower. Please Google, keep the list of names of the people who support this initiative so that is can be a permanent blemish on their reconds. I for one won't be employing them.
You walk into the store, which unexplainably changes its facade for every random holiday far after the novelty has worn off.
You go up to a sale person and tell him you want to buy a Television and before he can respond, you get 3 other sales people from other stores that jump in front and shove ads in your hands. You stare, dumbfounded, at the sale person and he says, "did you mean Telephones?" and then shows you 6 phones, none of which are what you wanted. And then he shows you 10 other boxes of phones that are basically the same phone.
And then he brags that there are 50 thousand other phones that match what you asked for back in the storeroom.
Then he smiles and asks you if you're feeling lucky. This is strangely arousing.
Google has a very small product line - it's hard to see how they can fill a store, unless they're going to be carrying a lot of "partner" (competitor's) Android phones. And, at this point in time, most of those partners are probably not that comfortable in their relationship with Google.
#DeleteChrome
Google is a search service. They provide a lot of useful information. I wonder if I should go there seeking anything and everything? I ask Google for things of all sorts not the least of which is how to hack my nexus 4 and nexus 7 devices. I wonder, then if I should go to those brick and mortar sites for the same sort of service? :)
Perhaps this is my clever way of wondering if Google isn't exceeding itself a bit too much. I can see Google "guiding" the Android user experience with their own, ostensibly non-competing devices and I was prepared to let it slide. But the idea that they would open a brick and mortar shop? To sell something? I'm a little confused.
On one hand, I would be more inclined to buy Google devices from local Google stores than I would to buy them online. But that's just me. This all leaves me curious... and maybe a little suspicious.
Although I've been using eBay for 13 years I'm getting really sick of them fucking with the layout and search engine every 6 months to the point where it's now no longer user-friendly but user-hostile. I've managed to stave off some of the shit they're trying to force on us (like oversized 'thumbnails' that are so large you can only see 3 or 4 items in a list of up to 200 on your screen) by some greasemonkey scripts but it's a never-ending fight against their retarded programmers who seem to keep tweaking things just to justify their wages (which should be frozen for their detrimental impact to the UI of the site).
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
"an extremely reliable source" - sounds like teenager chatter to me
Not at first, no. But when the Nexus 27 smartphone is launched at Google I/O this year, the need for a full retail space will make more sense.
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, occupying a corner of the Church of Scientology, 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 phone somewhere in Britain are as yet unconfirmed, despite investigations by sceptics' organisations.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I tried Weight Watchers and only lost 4 pounds over 4 weeks.
Now I'm on Google Watchers and I've gained 20 pounds in 2 weeks.
I was just puzzling this morning at the restaurant sign... how exactly I would order my hot pancake breakfast and coffee, or ice cream sundae, online? Tonight I read I can walk down the aisles at Google to find my search at the shopping mall. Is this what dementia feels like?
Gently reply
hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the holidays
Why would they care about being open for Earth Day? I know companies like to be 'green' nowadays but what is so special about opening on April 22?
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
This keeps in practice with their policy of never allowing any human contact with a Google employee.
and then give you a virus.
The Nexus devices sell in extremely small numbers, and mostly to computer nerds who decided to buy them before they even shipped, and who will almost certainly just order them online whenever they become available. That's the exact opposite of why you open a store.
RMS, waving his katana, will lead the HURD in the counter assault.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Great - I always have trouble finding things in the Mall. This search function will help.
If they ever do open it, you know they should have a "Google Bar" where you can ask questions. Because that is what is going to happen! People over a certain age that much rather have someone else do their research for them would come in and just ask questions. Like: Where is the nearest bestbuy? How can I import photos on my computer? What's the difference between ram and hard drives? ... But I wonder when they ring you out, would they have a counter for how long it would take? It took 30.284 seconds to ring you out today! Then again, it could end up like the Microsoft store except instead of a bunch of kids playing Xbox, they would watch YouTube videos.
I may have been too subtle (or just unfunny, which is often the same thing). A Nexus 27 would take up a lot of space. Android phones are getting humorously large (Note II). 93 Escort Wagon was wondering how they would fill a store with so few products...
So, nothing?