Samsung launching its own mini stores inside Best Buy

Samsung to get up "Experience Shops" in 1,400 Best Buy locations around the country

Samsung and Apple have been battle it out at it for what seems like forever now, with each one suing the other, and taking each other to court over patents (with Apple, it seems, usually winning). But what really counts is which company ultimately gets to sell the most phones. And Samsung has now made a move to take Apple on in its own turf... sort of.

In a move that makes it look like it wants to compete with the Apple Store, but without taking as much of a risk, Samsung has teamed up with Best Buy to bring 1,400 "Samsung Experience Shops" to Best Buy locations around the country, it was announced Thursday.

The Shop installations will begin this month, and 900 Best Buy, and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores, will feature the one of the Shops by early May . The remainder of the Shops are expected to have launched by early summer. The shops will vary in size depending on the size of the Best Buy store, with the largest Shop being around 460 square feet. 

"Samsung has been delivering the latest innovation across the consumer electronics category for some time," Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America, said in a statement.

"With the Samsung Experience Shops, we are ensuring consumers get the most of that innovation by learning how to leverage their mobile devices across our ecosystem of consumer electronics. Consumers will have one place to not only explore and learn about our full portfolio of mobile products, but also the support of a Samsung expert to help with selecting and servicing them. This will truly be a unique mobile shopping experience."

The Samsung Experience Shops will sell Samsung's full range of mobile products, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, connected cameras and accessories. They will also have Samsung Smart Service, which will include dedicated Samsung Experience Consultants, along with Best Buy blue shirt sales associates, that will be there to assist customers.

The Samsung Experience Consultants will be specially trained to "assist with product demonstrations, basic product services, Samsung account set up, warranty registration and post purchase support."

"Our promise to our customers is simple: we're committed to providing the best value, service and selection. Our partnership with Samsung on the Samsung Experience Shop is another way we're delivering on that promise," Shawn Score, head of U.S. Retail for Best Buy, said in a statement.

The arrangement between the two stores says a lot about both of them. Samsung was obviously weary about shouldering the financial risk of getting into retail; chances are it looks at these mini shops as a way to test to see if there is any real point of it going full in.

For Best Buy, this cannot be good news. While the retailer does have a similar type of setup with Apple, where there are dedicated Apple kiosks, these Samsung Shops will be taking up a lot of real estate inside Best Buy locations. It is well known that online services like Amazon have taken a big piece of the pie away from the brick and mortar stores, but Best Buy must really be hurting to give away so much of its space.

Ultimately, the deal might just be the best thing for both of them. Samsung doesn't have to compete with Apple on the same level, and Best Buy gets to fill up its stores with new gadgets to sell, instead of empty space.

(Image source: https://www.bestbuy.com)