IDC: Pixel shipments surge, Essential phone lags in 2017

A couple of tweets from IDC''s research director Francisco Jeronimo, revealed that Google doubled the number of Pixel handsets it shipped last year to 3.9 million handsets. That is a strong performance on an annual basis, but the Pixel made up just a small percentage of the global market. In fact, it is less than 1%. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL didn't launch until the fourth quarter of 2017 which means that much of the strong showing was due to sales of the original generation models.

The Pixel handsets have a way to go to compete with the likes of the iPhone and the Galaxy S line. Of course, if the number of units shipped each year continues to rise at this pace, it won't be too long before the Pixel line starts moving up in the charts. For Google, this slow and steady approach seems like the best way for the Pixel to gain traction with consumers.

Another tweet disseminated by Jeronimo pointed out that only 88,000 units of the Essential Phone were shipped in 2017. Andy Rubin's handset launched in August, but even taking that into consideration, it was anything but a big blowout success. The price of the phone dropped from $699 to $499 and some places are selling it for less. Essential has been working on a sequel and said last year that an IP certification rating is the most requested change for the next generation model.

Last week, Amazon started offering the Essential Phone along with the 4K 360 degree modular camera for $499.99. Essentially, that means that Amazon is selling you the phone and giving you the accessory for free.


source: @fjeronimo (1), (2) via DroidLife