> We might also see exclusives (time and chain based), and may even see more vendor showrooms. Sony, Apple, and others successfully operate stores which give users a chance to try things out in person.

This is already fairly similar to how high-end retail for clothing works; each boutique will have an item or two that is unique to their store, or done in a special colourway that can only be found there. The largest brands also operate their own stores already, go to any high street in a major city and you'll find LVMH and PPR brand flagship stores

It's much harder to comparison shop but it's also a much harder effort for the OEM to manage their SEO. Same product with thousands of different codes would make quality online reviews worthless I reckon. It would also mess up user/fan forums.

I was in the market recently for a high-end camera and it would've been really bad for the OEM to have different codes for it in different countries let alone different stores because it meant it would've been too hard to do research.

The cost to the OEM would be too high to bear to appease the mom & pop store at the other end, at the end of the day they don't care who retails their unit as long as they ship more at the wholesale rate.

Sony has been closing their stores pretty rapidly :). I think a store still has value if there is good customer support, like the Apple Genius bar.

More than customer support, it's the entire customer experience.

Apple is also a special case in that they control pricing of their goods with an iron fist and never allow discounts. The largest reason for "showrooming" as discussed in the article was the delta in price between a B&M store and online - with Apple your choice is "$cur and the product now" or "$cur and the product later"

Tires shops do this now. Go into a Firestone retailer, and you will be quoted tires that do not exist on TireRack.com