Dive Brief:
- Google posted the address of a brick-and-mortar location at 96 Spring St., in New York, via a new website late last week.
- The shop is almost definitely a demo and/or retail space for the set of hardware the company announced on Oct. 4, including its new Pixel smartphone, the Daydream View VR headset and Google Home, its home assistant device. The website has the "Made by Google" logo — the same one attached to the hardware announcement — and drop down menus for each of the devices.
- The Spring St. location is being billed as a “pop-up” shop, not a permanent location, and it remains to be seen whether more will crop up around the country as the rollout for Google's new tech hits its stride.
Dive Insight:
Google's plans to become a hardware company as much as a software developer became clearer last week with the detailing of three new devices, and the Pixel smartphone in particular is positioned as a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone. Given the success Apple has had with its brick-and-mortar efforts — and how essential they've become to the identity of the company through things like Genius bars — it's no surprise that Google is now dabbling more in the retail space. If done well, a physical store can go a long way toward helping Google bring its vision of a connected future to life for consumers and spur demand for its devices.
Physical shops are unusual but not unprecedented for the tech company. A few years ago, there were stores opened for users to try out Google Glass, before that project was shelved completely amid user backlash.
TechCrunch speculates that new pop-up store won't be a one-off event for Google either, pointing out the URL for the New York pop-up store ends with “/nyc,” indicating that more cities could be added to initiative in the future.
The arrival of brick and mortars comes as retailers are heading into peak holiday shopping season, and Apple is not the only one expected to see some tough competition from Google this year: Amazon Echo, host to its Alexa assistant, is now facing down Google Home, and launched a massive ad campaign in anticipation of Home's announcement last week.