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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."
No, but they have innovated with the concept of a store.
Hopefully Apple doesn't patent this invention. Let every small entrepreneur who wants to open up a location, and we could give Amazon a run for its money.
Just imagine, people shopping in person! You could try things out before buying them, and no need to wait (or pay) for shipping.
I think they're really on to something here.
No. Gateway invented their "Gateway Country" stores back in 2000. And since Apple copied Gateway (minus the cow motif), Google is copying a copy of a copy.
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.
Hardly, Gateway did this before Apple.
Apple, Microsoft, and Google walk into a mall:
Apple: I will seduce them with Jobsian user experiences!
Microsoft: I will bury them with my usual, cheap second-mover tactics!
Google: I will claim not to be evil, and send Androids to drink both Apple's and Microsoft's milkshakes.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
They innovated with the concept of a store with electronics made by them. There have been other stores before but none with branded electronics. To make the point of copying even more clear, Apple used innovative copper cables throughout the store to ensure proper electrical propagation to both light the space and power devices. They even had to innovate "plug receptacles" in the walls to better distribute the proprietary electrons from the miles of high-tech hipster copper cable! I'm sure we'll see Google stuffing the walls with copper cabling, flowing electrons, and even using those IP infringing electrons to transmit visible light into the space (Google's copying knows no bounds).
Oh, and a door. Google will probably use a door (I'll be here to tell you Google lovers I told you so when it comes true). Just like stealing the swipe to unlock they'll steal the open the door to enter.
Has Google ever done anything new? Doesn't seem like it. Tablet? Apple. Smart phone? Apple. MP3 player? Apple. First GUI? Apple. RAID? Apple. Internet? Apple. Moon rover? Apple. Fusion? Apple. Jesus? Apple.
I think my point is clear.
"So...."? Not "Did you mean"?
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
You left out the Anti-Apple-Anti-Microsoft-Anti-Google folks or the Anti-Google-Pro-Apple... aaargh, there are too many Anti-* and Pro-* permutations to type and I'm tired.
Bottom line, I doubt any resonable person would have a problem with any *-Store as long as they don't stifle local shops. Really your choice of a brand name has less to do with shops and more to do with marketing (though effectively designed shops can add something, which Apple's did), innate appeal (which fanboys already have) and lack of choice, which Google isn't really barging into in the store front, only the search and maybe email front.
Stores are still not a problem as long as they stay at the sub-Walmart level.
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
The Sony Store? Or perhaps Bose? They opened in Maine back in 1993. That said, the Google Store won't be a success if they can't fix their supply chain issues.
The local Gateway store was this dingy place that actually had their computers set up on card tables. It's like they were planning for failure. You also couldn't buy anything there, just sit down at a computer and order it online.
If anything, I would say Sony did it first and Apple copied the "Sony Experience" or whatever the fuck it was called.
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
Apple didn't copy Gateway, it copied Bang & Olufsen. B&O was doing prestige electronics boutiques in the 90's and still has them. Apple steals its design philosophy from much the same sources. It is straight Scandinavian design...uninspired at that. It's also ironic when you consider the reason behind the form originated from an inability to afford anything more.
It's gotten pretty bad when people frequently have trouble telling the rabid fan posts from the jokes.
Google sees self-driving cars in 3-5 years; Washington, insurers not so sure:
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.
As with many other things, the key differencee is that Apple did them well. (Scroll down to the last graph in the story for the best picture.) Believe me -- Google is hoping to copy Apple, not Gateway. Or Sony. Or Microsoft. If this is even happening at all.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
There have been other stores before but none with branded electronics.
RadioShack always offered their own branded items in their retail outlets. This has been done before, it's nothing new.
I hope Google doesnt build their store with round corners!
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.