Those who lived the era of Android smartphones in 2010 will certainly remember the project Nexusthe series of devices resulting from the collaboration between Google and several partner producers such as LG, Samsung, HTC, Huawei and Motorola. A line designed to offer a pure Android experience, which however had a structural limit, or the constant change of OEM; With the arrival of the pixels in 2016, however, Google radically changed strategytaking on direct control over the hardware and software development of their smartphones.
Today, almost ten years later, a Mountain View manager clearly explained why this change of pace proved to be fundamental.
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Google has chosen pixels as a platform for the development of long -term ideas
To talk about it was Venkat Rapaka, vice -president of the management of Google products and member of the Pixel team from the origins, in the Podcast made by Google.
Rapaka confirmed that the Pixel program allowed the company of develop ambitious concepts that require years of workwithout the complexity of having to convince a different partner to each product cycle. The most evident reference is to the Tensor project, the owner of Google who represents one of the company’s most important technological bets; A multi -year path that is difficult to imagine in the days of the Nexus, where the partners could not have an interest in investing in initiatives destined perhaps to end up on devices of a competitor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddkarqrver4
The example of Tensor is only the most emblematic, Rapaka recalled how, under the pixel umbrella, Google managed to carry out unique features, such as the Radar alone for the recognition of the gestures, the integrated thermometer and the magnets for the Qi2 charging introduced on the pixels 10.
There is also the folding sector, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold was the first Foldable smartphone with IP68 certification, a primacy that would hardly have been reached in a context like that of the Nexus program, where the OEM partners tended to reuse existing components to reduce costs and risks.
Despite the constraints, the Nexus represented a fundamental stop in the history of Android and remained in the hearts of many fans; However, as Rapaka pointed out, it was almost impossible to think of a long -term ecosystem in which the company in charge of producing devices changed every year.
It is therefore not surprising that Google decided to end the program, for focus on a line capable of guaranteeing continuity, design freedom and a multi -year strategic vision.
Today the pixels are no longer only Google Edition smartphones, but devices that represent the company’s technological laboratory; Sometimes the innovations work, others less, but the key point is that Google can finally experience without compromise.
The Nexus have had the merit of spreading the Android Stock experience and consolidating the role of Google in the sector, but the pixels gave the company the opportunity to grow and compete as a true hardware manufacturer, with all the advantages that follow.
