Google Pixel phones may soon be made in India, will they follow the other company success story

The Google Pixel line-up is a name that’s known well enough in India, but hasn’t really made much of a mark in the market amid competition by Chinese brands dominating the mid-range segment. The company recently acknowledged as much, saying Pixel phones don’t really have much of a foothold in the Indian smartphone market. However, Google is planning on making some changes and improve its presence in the country. According to a new report by The Economic Times, the search giant is working on bringing some of its Pixel manufacturing to India. It will sell the locally producing phones, and export them to other countries as well. Apart from this, the company also wants to sell more of its upcoming devices, such as the Pixel 5a, in the market.

Google has been importing Pixel phones since the beginning while most of its rivals, including Apple, have begun manufacturing their phones in India. This year, Google may finally begin manufacturing the Pixel phone in India. Details about Google's India manufacturing plans are scarce right now but it is likely the 'a' variants of Pixel phones will undergo manufacturing in India first. Moreover. this year’s inventory for the Google Pixel is going to be much larger.

"Google doubled inventory for Pixel for India last year and this year the intention is to further increase the focus and get [a] larger share from global inventory for the India market," a senior company executive was quoted as saying in the report. Google is expected to launch the Pixel 5a -- the successor to the Pixel 4a -- sometime in June but there is no particular date available as of now. And interestingly, there is no word on whether this year’s Pixel 6 will come to India or share the fate of Pixel 5.

The reason why low-cost handsets, such as Pixel 4a and now the Pixel 5a, are going to be more popular than the likes of Pixel 5 is the affordability. Even though the Pixel 4a was not as much economical, it was still fairly available for an approachable price but because the competition from OnePlus, Samsung, Realme, and Xiaomi was so tight, the Pixel 4a had to make a case for itself. The Pixel 4a brought the same magic sauce that high-end Pixel phones flaunt, the cameras. And Google relied mostly on the Pixel 4a cameras to drive the sales.

But now Google is said to be keeping an eye on the pricing strategy of Apple and OnePlus in India, especially in the Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 segment which is where the Pixel 4a was selling at. "Pricing is a learning curve. The fight is on...we came up with an aggressive pricing for Pixel 4a, which gave good results."

The Pixel 5 and the 5G variant of the Pixel 4a were not launched in India and according to the company executive, that was because India was not ready for these phones. He said 5G services are yet to hit the market and 5G chipsets from Qualcomm -- which Google uses in Pixel phones -- are expensive, which would have increased the overall cost of the phones. “Why do we want an expensive phone when Indians can't use 5G. Because of hardware cost, 5G variants weren't launched in India,” the executive was quoted as saying. Google also wants to make the Pixel phone available across more price points in India. And for that, it is going to play the brand value in the market. “Pixel awareness is in the market now,” he said.

Google already has a good presence in India’s smart speaker market, just behind Amazon thanks to the prolific Echo range. The sales of Pixel phones, however, has been plagued by a bad distribution that, when resolved, will drive more sales than ever for the Pixel phones. Google’s Pixel phones are known to a good number of customers but because of inadequate marketing, lack of aggressive pricing, and improper distribution, the sales have not been exceptionally good. However, Google saw an uptick in terms of year-over-year sales in 2020 with 36 per cent more units sold, according to Counterpoint Research data.