While the Indian market has been seen a growing interest from phone manufacturers in the mid-segment space, many have taken proactive approaches to marketing their offerings in the sub-continent. Most notably featured on this list are Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo who have enjoyed considerable success in the country. Larger smartphone makes like Google, however, have not really had a hands-on approach, until now.
Google has not been particularly concerned about the sales performance of its latest Pixel devices in India and the company has been lax in its promotion strategy. The company now wants to change this by committing to a full-scale brick and mortar business in the country by opening various Google stores. The tech giant has already been starting its campaign to promote its devices by opening various pop-up stores across India including High Street Phoenix in Mumbai and Select Citywalk, Promenade, Mall of India in Delhi-NCR region. Already there have been two major malls in the country that have requested Google to open flagship stores in their premises.
These new stores will be able to offer the latest Google products such as the Google Home smart speakers, Daydream and View VR headsets and other such accessories. We can expect these new stores to open up in the second half of next year. Joining the bandwagon is Apple too, who is planning to launch its own series of stores all over India. We can expect to see two of these stores open in Delhi and Mumbai sometime next year.
Google felt encouraged to open up more stores after the success of their pop-stores. India is currently the world’s second largest wireless market with 1.2 billion mobile subscribers and Google will want to tap into that market share. Google has already tried opening flagship stores in the country in the past, as far back as 2013. The company had partnered with Spice Group to introduce AndroidLand outlets to the country. The launch did not get the excitement that Google had anticipated however, but hopefully, this time around, we should expect Google’s second coming to be a more popular affair. The Pixel 2 has been well-received, despite its shortcomings but considering that brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus and Vivo already have a sure-footed hold on the country, it will be difficult for Google to make a dent.
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