Sheen Sagalongos' Blog

Google: a company that will eventually dominate the world.

You probably have heard the rumors regarding Google following Apple and Microsoft’s footsteps and its plan to set up retail stores in select cities. Well, if you’re just like me, you probably found it exciting the first time you heard it. Then as you begin to process the thought and let it sink in, you quickly become a skeptic and question the feasibility of this.

A Google store? Weird. What would they sell? Google has a very “open” system compared to Apple. Products that they are known for such as Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Drive, and Google Maps among a number of programs are all online. Surely, they don’t need a physical store for that. Android is used by a number of companies like Samsung, LG, and HTC. So will they start carrying mobile phones in there stores? How would that benefit them? What could they possibly put into the store?

A few days or weeks later, I heard about the unveiling of the new Chromebook; the ad for Google Glasses goes viral shortly after. Huh, I think to myself, their rumored plan doesn’t seem so weird now! Some have said that Apple’s success is because of the Apple Stores. They marketed their products as elegant, high quality products, but they had to get consumers to physically come into their stores, hold their iProducts and let them explore it.

Will the same strategy yield the same results for Google? Whether it is profitable or not, if Google plans to sell “legitimate” Google products such as the Google Glasses, the Nexus 4, the Chromebook or even their driverless cars, I think that it eventually has to open stores. We know that products like these require a lot of research and test drives before people buy them (not to mention the increased need for post-purchase service). By cutting down the distribution channels, Google can directly interact with their customers and their qualms. Though I love Google, I’m still hesitant to say that this is an ingenious strategy. We’ll find out soon, perhaps.