Rating: Anything you can do, we can do …
Reports have merged that Google is in the process of going into the retail business in North America. So the company chiefly responsible for the decline amongst retail suppliers is in fact making the move into bricks & mortar. Reliable sources say that it has decided to go up directly against its opponents in the mobile OS wars – Apple, and to a lesser extent, Microsoft by establishing itself with a High Street presence. GoMobile News wonders whether the search engine giant is aware that with so many prominent High Street names in administration in the UK, the company realises it is the ideal time to make such a move in Britain. It could get some pretty prestigious site in London, for example.
Sources told The Sunday Times that Google would be selling its Chromebook computers; Nexus tablets and a selection of Android handsets (Motorolas ones obviously included) on the High Street.
There are also suggestions that the company would use such retail stores to showcase future technologies such as Google Glasses which are the heads up displays for the masses.
If this strategy does prove to be a success, then we can envisage Amazon following suit to sell its Kindle tablets through shops, too.
Wouldn’t it be a bitter irony is Amazon were to acquire a site formerly belonging to HMV – a company whose demis is mainly due to a lack of online presence?
