Leading internet search engine Google has opened a high street shopping facility in London, within a branch of Currys and PC World.
The 285 sqft pop-up store on Tottenham Court Road is known as Chrome Zone and has a limited range of products - simply the Chromebook laptop and related accessories.
It is thought that the move results from research by the company showing that 80 per cent of laptops are sold via traditional shops.
Google's blog said: "Many things in life, like football and rock music, are best experienced in person. Chromebooks are no exception."
The computer was only previously available online, through PC World and Amazon.
The prototype shop-within-a-shop will run until Christmas. More locations are planned; the first of which will be Lakeside Shopping Centre on 7 October.
Some industry experts have expressed surprise that Google has not been more demonstrably enthusiastic about its 'bricks and mortar' experiment.
"When Google opened its first physical shop you might have expected a song and dance," said Wall Street Journal technology blogger Nick Clayton. "Instead, the arrival of Google’s Chrome Zone in central London has happened so quietly you almost wouldn’t notice it had happened."
