Mobile phones, watches and tablets: Google is already Apple manufacturing hardware, it only needs to know how to sell it

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Mobile phones, watches and tablets: Google is already Apple manufacturing hardware, it only needs to know how to sell it
mobile phones, watches and tablets: google is already apple manufacturing

We can all agree that Google is a real monster when it comes to software. Monster in a good way, not just in size. It is true that some of its proposals have been erased from its catalog of services, but only what has been achieved in Gmail, Photos, Android or Google Search itself, the search engine, would be worth fifty lives of any other company. Nevertheless, in hardware they have always had a fuzzy strategy.

Something has changed, however. In recent years, Google has been straightening out what was “worst” in hardware manufacturing, and the last Google I/O has confirmed that the bet is now total. We will no longer talk only about physical or mobile assistants. Google is going for tablets, for folding phones and also for watches. Google finally goes for it all, but her way of selling him, of selling herself, remains flawed.

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Google and Apple, rivals not so different but not similar either

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It always seemed strange that Google did not want to enter territories that it apparently controlled perfectly. In the same way that Apple has always been the owner and lord of its ecosystem, designing each step from software to hardware of all its devices, Google stayed at half gas with Android.

There is no doubt that Google is, today, one of the best software creators on the market. As we have said before, the famous search engine came out of his company, but also Android, and later WearOS. Also Chrome OS. Then Fuchsia for your connected devices. And of course, services of the caliber of Google Photos or Gmail. Not forgetting Assistant, of course, possibly the most powerful AI virtual assistant today.

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The achievements have been many, but although Apple always wanted to cover everything, from the code to each piece introduced in its devices, Google stayed on the side of the software. A side that dominated perfectly, but we users felt a kind of ‘half gas’ strategy, which over time it was channeled although always incompletely.

From the Nexus to the Pixel

Pixel 7

Google’s first adventures with Android came with phones manufactured by third parties. First hand in hand with HTC and under their brand, then under the Nexus brand. Google employed many manufacturers along the way to produce each of its devices. We saw phones from HTC, Samsung or LG arrive. Also tablets manufactured by ASUS.

The golden age of the Nexus also ended up extinctand while Android became more and more powerful, and took over a market that did not stop growing as the system itself matured, Google’s definitive commitment to becoming the ‘Apple of Android’, controlling every step of the process, it did not end up arriving.

With the Google Pixel came a different bet, more forceful, but still incomplete. Own manufacturing. Or almost. At least own design. The firm’s first phones still felt unfinished, despite evolving generation by generation. Its hardware defects were solved by more polished software than ever, and by the power of Google in photography, showing what it was capable of doing despite not having the best sensors or the best lenses. Google excelled at what it had always done best: software. Artificial intelligence.

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With the latest Pixels, much more perfect in hardware, the necessary bets have also arrived to differentiate themselves and offer something more. The Google Tensor, for example, is a great example of this. Also earlier chips in other Pixel generations to focus on security. All this combined with Nest products offered a stronger ecosystem. But the real bet arrived two days ago.

Google I/O and the ‘all out’ with regular marketing

Watch

In the last Google I/O, the North American brand has put much more meat on the grill. We are no longer just talking about connected devices for the home or mobile phones. We also talk about tablets and watches. And the future promise, and not yet official, to get into folding phones. All this seasoned with a much more mature and solid version of Androidthe one starring Android 13.

However, Google’s bets have been accompanied by a “for later”. Contrary to what Apple does best, which is advertise and put up for sale to take advantage of the hype for your own benefit, Google continues to take things easy and it does not seem that this will benefit them. Some manufacturers announce now and sell in several months, and Google is not interested in going down that road.

pixel-tablet

Timidly showing the Google Pixel 7 to say that they will arrive, doing the same with the Pixel Watch or even hinting at the existence of a tablet that only showed us its rear corner at first does not benefit them. Its users want, we want, to buy these products now. We want the Pixel brand to be powerful and compete not only in quality and software, but also in sales. And there Google is failing.

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Google puts the batteries, it is true, and its commitment is more complete than ever. It returns to tablets for what we assume will be the big door, and finally it is encouraged to squeeze its own mobile operating system, WearOS. But the announcements have to materialize now so that the bet does not remain half gas. And that is what has happened. Just like getting better at other things, Google has to get its act together when it comes to selling itself. The hardware proposal must be at the same level as the software proposal. It is what we all (or almost all) want.