Google will begin to open its own retail stores, Apple style, before the end of the year, according to a report from 9to5Google.
The decision comes by way of Google’s expanding range of products, including Chromebooks and Nexus smartphones and tablets that customers can’t really try out in stores before buying.
The search engine giant is plotting a range of fancy stores that will start to pop up in major metropolitan areas closer to the end of this year.
According to the source, another big factor influencing Google’s decision to move into retail stores is Google Glass. We’ve seen the clever glasses on plenty of occasions but they’re not yet on sale to the public. When they do go on sale, Google wants a good strategy in order to sell them, and its own retail stores look to be the way it will go about it.
Google has plenty it could offer in its own stores, ranging from its Chrome-running Chromebook laptops made by the likes of Samsung and Acer through to its Nexus devices, including the Nexus 7 and 10 tablets and the Nexus 4 smartphone.
Currently you can buy Chromebooks in various high street PC retailers, but Nexus devices like the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 have to be ordered online through the Play Store. Google hopes to show people its devices in Apple Store-style shops.
Google already operates stores within stores, such as those within the larger PC World and Currys stores here in the UK, where it offers Chromebooks mainly.
Would you prefer to be able to go into a store to play with the latest Nexus devices before making the decision to buy one?