Google's Andy Rubin Says There's No Need for Google Retail Stores

We reported that Google retail stores could appear by this holiday shopping season earlier this month, however, it now appears that the chance of that happening is much less likely.  At least, if you believe the word of Andy Rubin, Google’s head of Android.

Rubin noted that Google’s hardware initiatives are still in the infancy stages, “For Nexus, I don’t think the program is far enough along to think about the necessity of having these things in a retail store.”  He also said that he doesn’t believe people still need to go into a store to see and/or try out a product before buying it because of the amount of information they can get online as well as by talking to friends.  I’m not completely sold on that belief, though.

As for whether Google as a whole might nonetheless be considering retail stores. “Google has no plans and we have nothing to announce,” he said.

(Via All Things D.)