SAN FRANCISCO — Google took a big step on Wednesday toward pushing its Pixel product range down a road already paved by Apple and its line of trendsetting devices.
The latest additions to the six-year-old Pixel brand are Google’s first smartwatch to leverage the features and expertise it gained from last year’s fitness gadget maker Fitbit acquisition for $2.1 billion.
The new watch, slated for a fall release, marks Google’s first major effort to make its mark in wearable technology, a market that has been growing steadily since Apple introduced its smartwatch in 2014. Until now, Google’s presence in the smartwatch market has been limited. To make a version of its Android mobile operating system for watches from other companies.
Google also used its annual I/O developer conference to tease a Pixel tablet slated for release next year to compete with Apple’s market-leading iPad.
In addition to showcasing the upcoming devices, Google also previewed the next version of its Android operating system, which runs most of the world’s smartphones outside of Apple’s iPhone. It also highlighted several advancements in artificial intelligence.
Google’s emphasis on new devices indicates that a company best known for its dominant search engine and other popular Internet software believes it now has a better handle on hardware design and manufacturing. It released its first Pixel smartphone in 2016.
“It takes a lot of time to build the capabilities, and now you see very clearly that technology is expressed in many different products,” Rick Osterloh, the director in charge of Google’s device division, told reporters earlier this week. “It was like an iceberg because you didn’t see much of what was going on underneath, but now you can see all these things coming to the surface.”
Since it already brings in more than $200 billion a year in digital ad sales, Google can afford to go in different directions and find new ways to connect with people, according to Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen.
Adding more products to the Pixel range will give them “a new starting point for learning and experiencing things more directly with people,” Nguyen said. “Now they’re not just in your pocket, but on your wrist and in your ears too.”
Before launching its smartwatch, Google will flesh out its roster of Pixel phones with a new budget model dubbed the 6a, due out at the end of July, along with its first set of wireless noise-canceling earbuds.
The Pixel 6a packs Google’s best processor but sells for $449 — a 25% discount on the slightly more advanced Pixel 6 released last fall. The Pixel Buds Pro retails for $199. Both products are slated to release on July 28.
Since it already brings in more than $200 billion a year in digital ad sales, Google can afford to go in different directions and find new ways to connect with people, according to Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen.
Adding more products to the Pixel range will give them “a new starting point for learning and experiencing things more directly with people,” Nguyen said. “Not only are they in your pocket, but now they can be on your wrist and in your ears too.”
The watch will be the first product to test a privacy promise Google made to get regulatory approval for its Fitbit acquisition 16 months ago. As part of the deal, Google promised not to collect the health and fitness information collected through Fitbit features to sell digital ads that generate the majority of its revenue — a commitment the company said it would keep with the new Pixel Watch.
While still nowhere near as popular as phones, smartwatches had continued to make significant strides, with global shipments projected to reach 31.3 million units this year, up from 18.5 million in 2019 before the pandemic helped fuel even more demand for the internet. To generate connected gadgets.
Even after pouring billions of dollars into a hardware division that now employs thousands of people, Google hasn’t made a major breakthrough.
Despite occasional rave reviews, Pixel smartphones account for less than 1% of the global market for the devices, according to research firm International Data Corp. IDC estimates that fewer than 30 million Pixel smartphones have been sold since the first model was released nearly six years ago. By contrast, according to IDC, Apple shipped more than 56 million iPhones alone in the first three months of this year.
But IDC analyst Nabila Popal said there are signs that the Pixel smartphone line is gaining traction. She believes the Pixel 6 would have sold even better than it already has been were it not for chip shortages that have hurt a variety of products, making it more likely that the cheaper 6a model will be “very well received”.
For its part, Google says that the Pixel 6 has already sold the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 in the first six months on the market.
