While the general sense is that the smartphone market volumes are recording much less growth if not shrinking, Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google appears upbeat about the prospects of selling its hardware.
To start with, CEO Sundar Pichai was quite proud of the fact that the two pathbreaking technologies this year of the launch of the 5G Android smartphones and the Samsung Galaxy Fold (though delayed a bit now) witnessed Google playing a huge role. In particular, developing the Android UI for the foldable phone in which the team from Google worked in tandem with the Samsung team to develop the technology.
The other interesting development is the plan to launch the Pixel 3a phones, positioning them in the mid segment, but with most features present as in the Pixel 3 phones. It is likely to happen next month and Alphabet is justifiably gung-ho over it. The company is teasing the media and the public on this I/O hardware debut and it should be exciting to see what is in store.
Some of the other major issues referenced in the speech by the CEO included the “campus and engineering hub” in Taiwan in collaboration with HTC. It is considered a great move by Google since its work on developing smartphones will get a boost.
On the Internet of Things (IoT) front too, Google feels it is winning the race in product lines like Home speakers. The Mini and Hub models seem to be faring well among the customers and the company has been able to take on Amazon in this segment successfully. Google possibly has won the battle in the international markets not just limiting the performance in the US market. If Google leads the way in the smartphone market, the others may follow suit.