By unveiling the new Pixel 9 line today, Google hopes to snag impatient phone buyers
Later today, Google will hold its "Made by Google" event during which we will see the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold unveiled. And it's not even October! Former Motorola president Ric Osterloh will be the human star of the show on Tuesday. Osterloh joined Google in 2016 and now, with the hardware and Android software teams working together under his leadership, Google hopes to create some excitement during the dog days of August.
There's no telling how much money Google lost out to Apple over the last few years by not releasing the Pixel until after the launch of the latest iPhone models. Tomorrow, a decent new product event showing plenty of useful AI features could have impatient consumers sitting on the fence choosing to order one of the new Pixel 9 models instead of waiting for the iPhone 16 series to be made official.
Some analysts are saying that Google's move to hold its event in August instead of October is a sign that the company is finally taking hardware and smartphones seriously. Mandeep Singh, who is an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, is one of the analysts who believes this. And he gives credit to Osterloh for this change.
"For the first time, I feel Alphabet is taking its hardware and the smartphone side pretty seriously. That is a reflection of Rick’s leadership and what he has done."-Mandeep Singh, analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence
According to Bloomberg, Osterloh's star has risen at Google even though Apple and Samsung still own a huge share of the U.S. smartphone market. Over the last few years, the Pixel went from being a proof-of-concept for Android to a more serious flagship challenger to Apple and Samsung. Pixel sales are on a slow but steady upward trend even after a rough year following the release of the Pixel 6 series. A crappy modem, a slow processor, and an under-display fingerprint scanner that never worked right set Google back after the release of the Pixel 6 line.
The Pixel 9 Pro will be unveiled later today.
But to the company's credit, Google has worked to improve the line every year. Next year could be the start of a new beginning for the series as the Pixel 10 will be powered by a Tensor G5 chip designed by Google from scratch and manufactured by TSMC using its 3nm process node.
As for this year, Google's decision to leapfrog ahead of Apple on the calendar could be a sign that it feels confident that its AI features are far superior to Apple Intelligence. Bloomberg Intelligence's Singh says that Google is "frontrunning Apple and also making a statement that we are likely way ahead of what Apple will show for iPhone 16 at least." And that could lead consumers to give Google exactly what it is hoping for. That would be be a strong pre-order period from Pixel buyers confident enough in the Pixel 9 line to reserve their new phones without waiting to see what Apple is going to offer.
The "Made by Google" event will take place at 10 am PDT/1 pm EDT. For real-time news and analysis of the event, keep it right here at PhoneArena.
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