Mountain View, Calif. – Google may be planning to open its first freestanding retail stores by the holiday season.
According to a report by the blog 9to5Google, the company will open the branded shops in major metropolitan areas to demonstrate and sell Chromebook laptops, Nexus phones and tablets, and its just-released Google Glass eyewear computers directly to consumers.
The site cited “an extremely reliable source” and supports the claim with a Google job posting from November for a London-based point-of-sale system engineer.
While the company already sells its Chromebook Pixel laptop and Nexus mobile products direct through its online Google Play store, reports have been bubbling for months of a hunt for retail real estate.
Google’s former Android chief Andy Rubin denied any brick-and-mortar plans during the Mobile World Congress in February, noting that consumers “don’t have to go in the store and feel it anymore,” All Things Digital reported. Rubin was reassigned less than one month later by Google CEO Larry Page.
