Google has opened its first highs street retail store on London’s famous Tottenham Court Road.
The ‘Chrome Zone’ is located within the
PC World branch and is designed to allow consumers to try out the company’s own
Chromebook laptops.
The new cloud-based
laptops, which are made by
Samsung and run Google’s own operating system, were previously only available online through Amazon and PC World, but the search giant now believes consumers will benefit from being able to test the
computers in real life and having on-hand guidance and advice from "specially trained Chromebook experts".
Arvind Desikan, head of consumer marketing at
Google UK said: "It is our first foray into physical retail. This is a new channel for us and it's still very, very early days. It's something Google is going to play with and see where it leads."
He added that the company’s research had shown that when people played with the device, it made "a huge difference to their understanding of what the Chromebook is all about".
The 285sqft Chrome Zone store opened for business on Friday (September 30) in what was a fairly low-key affair. The experimental store will run for three months up to
Christmas.
A second "shop within a shop" offering the £349 - £399 Chromebooks will open later this week (October 7) at the Lakeside
shopping centre in Essex, and more pilot shops are planned around the world in the coming months.