Google Pixel could not win on the high-end, but the mid-range is not easier

Today, Google will announce Pixel 5 and 4A 5G. Well, not so much “announce” but launch, as the company already told us these phones would be coming when it announced the Pixel 4A in early August. We know what to expect because these phones have been leaked in every way except Sunday. And Google has already told us how much the Pixel 4A 5G will cost too: $ 499.

About the only thing that is not widely confirmed at the time of writing (last night) is the price of the Pixel 5. There are strong rumors that it will hit $ 699, which lines up with the big takeout I’m hoping to get. out with today. That would be this: Google is narrowing down to the mid-range this year rather than trying to compete directly with Apple and Samsung flagships.

Lowering the price would be more faithful to what the Pixel is. But when it comes to Pixel hardware, no good deed goes unpunished. The mid-range market that Google is presumably targeting has recently been filled with competitors who beat the Pixel 5’s rumored price, beat it in rumored specs, or both.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is sitting on my desk right now and after just a couple of days I can already say it’s a very good deal for $ 699. The OnePlus 8 regularly sells for $ 599 these days and is Your cheapest Nord phone is likely to arrive in the US as well with some configuration. Plus, of course, the iPhone 11 costs $ 699 and a new iPhone in the same price class is likely soon.

Still, it’s a smart move to head for the midrange. Expectations for perfection across categories are lower, and frankly, I don’t think there’s that much of an appetite for ultra-premium phones and their ultra-high price tags right now. Additionally, Google has struggled to credibly compete in the flagship market, where phones cost over a thousand dollars and are packed with every spec and feature you can imagine.

The Pixel line has also not credibly competed with the sales figures we see on top-tier Galaxy phones and iPhones in the US Google has done much better with the Pixel 3A and is presumably doing well with the Pixel. 4A, but it’s not making a dent in the market yet.

IDC Analyst and Associate Vice President Francisco Jeronimo estimates that Google sold about 7.2 million Pixel phones in 2019. 7.2 million phones is a drop in the bucket in global smartphone sales and yet it reports that it was a 52 percent year-over-year increase in the Pixel 3A strength and expanded markets.

When trying to decide which smartphone to buy, I don’t think you need to worry about how many units are sold, as I don’t care about the price of the shares. Market share only matters to the extent that it is an indication of two things: the availability of accessories like cases and the likelihood that you will get support when you need it. In both cases, I think it’s fair to say that Google is committed to fulfilling those roles.

But I mention market share anyway because it’s numbers like these that keep me wondering what Google is doing with the Pixel. In this newsletter, I asked why you are manufacturing your own telephone hardware, and the CEO of the company answered that question directly. Here is Sundar Pichai’s answer from last May, emphasis mine:

So for me, three reasons. One is for push computing forward. The second is that really guide our ecosystem. […] And third is really build a sustainable hardware business.

On all three fronts, I give the Pixel line a C. I give it that rating although I rate the quality of individual phones much higher. Pixel 3A and 4A are inexpensive marvels and even the often maligned Pixel 4 is still a cleaner and more elegant experience than more powerful third-party Android devices. Obviously, I won’t tell you if the Pixel 5 or 4A 5G are good until I use them. But the recently leaked specs make me think that both will end up being better than expected.

Let’s review these justifications. When it comes to pushing computing forward and guiding the ecosystem, I don’t think the Pixel is a strong case at the moment. Yes, previous models kicked the entire industry in the rear for camera quality, forcing everyone to improve their game.

But since then, Pixel phones have primarily shown how to make a non-obtrusive version of Android, and many manufacturers seem to be ignoring that. Google is also so late in the year that there have always been Android phones that have been ahead of using the latest Qualcomm chips. Trying to make secure face unlock something seems to have gone nowhere as well.

What’s a bit crazy about the first two Cs is that before the Pixel, Google had another line of phones with precisely those goals, the Nexus phones. And indeed, Nexus phones regularly “pushed computing” by showing how Android could work on new chips and I think it also served to “guide the ecosystem” better than the Pixel does today.

The difference is that Google did not directly “make” Nexus phones, but partnered with other companies. And the other difference is that Google never For real he claimed he would sell Nexus phones in bulk or “build a sustainable hardware business” with them.

Whatever the actual sales number of the Pixel line, it is indisputable that they are low compared to the big-name competition. I still don’t see how it has become a “sustainable hardware business”. But the growth looks good and Google has come up with a very obvious strategy: sell a good phone at a lower price. Funny how that works.

There is reason to believe that on all three fronts, Google may be getting lower grades now because it is putting all its effort into next year’s classes. Given the hectic pace of the news, you’ll be forgiven if you missed that Google is working on its own silicon processor in collaboration with Samsung. Axios reported that it is codenamed “Whitechapel” and that it could ship next year.

Exiting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips would be an instant differentiator for Google. If its own chips perform better, it would also make it easier for Google to re-enter the flagship market and get a lot of people to look at the Pixel line again. (However, it’s doubtful that Google also makes its own 5G modems.)

It’s always risky to assume that a product will be better next year, just ask Bluetooth, but my hunch and hope is that the Pixel 5 and 4A may represent the end of the first era of Pixel phones. I hope they are good phones in their own right. I also hope that when it comes to the scores Google gets on Pichai’s three hardware targets, the Pixel 5 isn’t the final exam.