The next Android tablet you buy could be directly from Google. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
Google wants to change that. Google plans on selling Google-branded tablets directly to customers from their own online store, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Initially, The Journal says, the tablets would be built in partnership with manufacturers Asus and Samsung. Motorola-built Google-branded tablets will eventually hit the online store as well.
According to The Journal‘s “people familiar with the matter,” the store could go live later this year.
This isn’t Google’s first time selling hardware online. The company sold the HTC-built Nexus One exclusively online in 2010. The web store wasn’t a success by any measure. According to the head of the Android team, Andy Rubin, the online store only sold 100,000 phones and broke even and the company had “bit off a little more than [it] could chew.”
“Google believes the current model for selling tablets is broken,” The Journal says. The store would put them in direct competition with Apple and Amazon, two major competitors that have thrived selling their hardware online.
Breaking into the online commerce space isn’t going to be easy the second time around. According to Forrester Research Analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, “Google has to convince consumers that it does commerce to make direct sales work. They haven’t shown that they are able to do that yet.”
A report from mobile analytics firm Flurry shows that Amazon is generating more revenue for developers from Android apps than Google. Not a good sign for the search giant if it tries to re-enter the online store space.
If Google does start selling hardware again, they better have a plan to convince customers that they are ready this time.
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