Google has everything to sell its Pixel like churros, but it’s as if they don’t want to do it

The event ‘Made by Google‘ that was held yesterday allowed us to meet the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, but also the Pixel Watch and (not quite) the Pixel Tablet.

Google’s new hardware proposals update and expand the company’s hardware ecosystem, but although Google could become a direct competitor of Apple in this area, they seem to want to be more in the background. Google’s ambition is decaffeinated: it’s as if they don’t want to sell muchand we are not clear why.

We want to sell more than ever, but not too much, please

James Park, director of Google, had been talking about the Pixel Watch for 10 minutes. A few minutes passed after 5:00 p.m., Spanish peninsular time, and it was time to talk about price and availability. And that’s when we found out: the Pixel Watch would not be sold in Spain initially: I would only do it in a handful of countries.

With the Pixel Tablet, which we have also known about for months, things were even worse: after revealing its design and some additional details —but little or nothing about its specifications—, Rose Yao, another of Google’s product managers, did not even gave a price, and only pointed out that this device would be sold in 2023.

Google seems to bet “everything” on its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. The quotes are important, because even in that case the ambition of Google is very limited.

Sources close to the company reveal that Google has requested that they be manufactured more than 8 million of these mobilesand its goal is to sell twice as many smartphones in 2023 as it has sold in 2022.

Wanting to sell twice as much is all very well, but things lose their luster when we put that sales data into perspective. What explained Vlad Savov, editor at Bloomberg, since Google launched the Pixel in 2016 has sold 27.6 million units.

Since Google launched Pixel phones in 2016, it’s sold 27.6 million units. That’s 1/10 of Samsung’s 2021 sales. In other words, Google would need 60 years to sell as many phones as Samsung sells in one.

Data: IDC

— Vlad Savov (@vladsavov) October 4, 2022

It is a ridiculous figure, and represents a tenth of the phones that Samsung sold in 2021“Google would need 60 years to sell as many phones as Samsung sells in one.”

The comparisons are more odious in the case of Apple: already in 2018 IDC indicated that Google sells so many mobiles in a year Like the ones Apple sells in a week.

The consultant showed the sales data of the different generations and revealed how none of the models has managed to sell more than 10 million units. Another curious fact: As long as there have been two sizes, the smaller models have always sold better.

Some will say that the comparison with Samsung is unfair: after all, that manufacturer never stop launching models to the market and its manufacture and distribution is massive. The same thing happens with the other big players in the Android market: Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo —which are successful in Spain, but which are even more relevant in Asia— are also device machine guns. The launch rhythms are frenetic.

Fear of upsetting their partners

For many (and myself included) the natural comparison is between Google and Apple: both release very few devices per year and surround them with an ecosystem of products and services in which the mobile is (or should be) the center of that ecosystem.

Savov explained that in the United States Google depends too much on Samsung. LG dropped out, HTC disappeared, and Chinese brands “are not welcome.” This effort with the Pixel 7 seems to want to mitigate the situation and propose an alternative (and not a competitor) to Samsung.

It is an interesting message, mainly because America is a very different country. in this matter of smartphones: there Apple’s share recently surpassed that of Android, something that is very difficult to achieve (in the short term, at least) in the rest of the world. In Google they seem to want to contribute their grain of sand so that Samsung has some help.

However, certainly there seems to be something about not wanting to compete with their partners and partners. That Google makes a better mobile than its partners seems dangerous, and surely many of you remember those wonderful Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 that were full-fledged bargain phones. The only problem was getting them, because Google hardly put units up for sale. Perhaps so as not to disturb their partners? Who knows.

The situation is reminiscent of that of Microsoft with its Surface family, which is there, right. A few years ago Michael S. Shultz, a manager at Microsoft, explained that these devices they sell “better than needed”. He added that “the goal is not necessarily to become a hardware manufacturer, but to help our partners be as successful as possible.”

Surfaces, like Pixels, are more of a template than is possible with a good combination of hardware and software. Here Google (and Microsoft) show guidelines and experiment, but they prefer not to do it too well (or so it seems) so that the manufacturers who are their partners do not get angry at them.

The experiments, better with soda

In fact, yesterday’s Google event made it clear. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are promising, but the Tensor G2 chip still doesn’t want to enter any race with Apple’s iPhone chips. Worse off a priori is the Pixel Watch, which it is ruled by a 2018 Exynos 9110something that is surely a bad option when it comes to being more efficient.

That this watch is also only sold in a handful of countries seems to position it not as a product that Google wants to sell, but more as an experiment, a “let’s see how it goes, let’s see if people buy it”. In fact, it reminds of the first Google Pixels, which were sold very modestly because it really seemed that Google simply preferred not to sell more.

With the Pixel Tablet, things are even worse: the device does not seem particularly advanced, neither in design nor in features. It is known that it will in fact be governed by the Tensor G1 – not even the G2 – so by the time it comes out in 2023 we will have on stage a product that arrives late and, perhaps, badly. What does Google want? There are too many half measures here. I want too much and I can’t. We just don’t understand it.

The unknowns are many, and the truth is that still surprising that Google does not take advantage of its enormous capacity. It could do so to promote a division that would give many joys and would place it much more clearly as a competitor of Apple in the field of hardware.

But the Pixels are still there. Without bothering anyone too much. Those 8 million that they want to manufacture in 2023 are (almost) nothing. Apple sells that number of iPhones every two weeks. And so, Google, you can’t compete. You don’t want to, it seems.