Google, however, gave no information on the development, and told ET that the company does not comment on rumors and speculations. As offline stores seem to be a big deal now for the Indian smartphone market as it overtook the USA as the second-largest smartphone market in the world, every brand, including Google, may fall short without any offline presence.
Google's offline retail stores allow users to experience Pixel phones and purchase instantly. The company is also said to have hired a senior Apple executive to be part of its expansion plans. Google has made their space in the mobile hardware industry by launching their Pixel series of smartphones. Google is said to have been encouraged to go the offline route following positive feedback from its pop-up stores, where it set up a dark room to showcase the Pixel's low-light shooting capabilities.
The tentative timeline for the physical Google stores is in the latter part of 2018.
These pop-up stores helped Google to understand that physical stores are important to explain things clearly that is not possible via online videos and advertisements.
For those unaware, this is not the first time Google is setting up a physical store in India.
Google will use the stores to sell other products as well, said one of the persons cited above.
It is not clear whether Google is planning to the same in other countries or not, but in the US, Google already has two pop-up stores in New York City and Los Angeles.
Google Pixel is over a year-old device, but Indian customers are largely unaware of this brilliant smartphone.
It's unclear whether Google will open its own stores or outsource the operations to a third party. Opening Google's stores will not just boot the Pixel smartphones sales, it is being expected that they will sell Chromebook Pixel, Google Home, Google Home Mini, Chromecast, Chromecast Ultra, and Daydream View as well. The likes of Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi have their stores run by other franchises in India.
Apple is seeking a single-brand licence to open own stores in India and has sought concessions including duty exemption on manufacturing and servicing, components, capital equipment and consumables for 15 years.