Up to now, consumers could find Google devices and other items in its online Play store alongside Android apps and games, but the Mountain View company evidently feels its growing selection of hardware now deserves a standalone store.
The new store is broken down into five sections – phones, tablets, TV & video, Android Wear, and accessories – and offers everything from Nexus mobile devices to smartwatches to Chromebooks, among them the just-launched $999 Chromebook Pixel, which DT takes a look at here.
There’s not much in the accessories section just yet (or in the store as a whole, for that matter), with the current lineup of products comprising just a few tablet covers and stands, as well as several charging devices and the Nexus Player Gamepad.
Besides huge product images – a style designed perhaps to cover up the fact that there’s not a whole lot going on in the store just now – visitors to the site will also find several sections titled ‘a closer look,’ essentially a place for Google to explain more about its offerings, though obviously it’s also geared toward gently persuading shoppers that dropping cash for its hardware would be a really good idea.
As an incentive to get your wallet out, the Web giant says it’s offering free shipping on all purchases for a limited time.
And in case you’ve recently bought a gadget from the Play store and are wondering if your order information may have vanished into thin air, fear not – all relevant data has been automatically transferred to the new online store.
