href=”http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:GOOG” rel=”googlefinance” target=”_blank” title=”NASDAQ: GOOG”>Google may open its first stand- alone Retail Store in Dublin. The reports stem from Google Dublin, the company’s European Headquarters, which recently filed a local planning application for a store in its HQ.
Located in the Montevetro office block on Dublin’s Barrow Street, the store would have about 123 square meters (1,323 square feet) of space including an added mezzanine floor designed to draw attention from passersby. The filing also details plans for a landscaped garden, swimming pool, gym and restaurant for the building, which Google acquired in April of last year. Bloomberg reports that Google yesterday declined to comment on its plans for retail locations except to say that it was an option.
Retail may be a new front in Google’s competition with Apple Inc. (AAPL), whose 361 stores have fueled sales of iPods, iPhones and iPad tablet computers. Google, the world’s biggest maker of smartphone operating software, is in the process of buying handset maker href=”http://www.motorola.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”Motorola Mobility”>Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion to help it compete with Apple’s phones and Microsoft Corp.’s mobile software.
Google opened a store inside of a London branch of Currys and PC World, units of Dixons Retail Plc, as a trial for selling laptop computers, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported in October.