10 years of Pixel and I still don't get it

Google software runs on three billion devices

Google's phone, if you lined up like 100 Android users, maybe one of them is holding a Pixel

Google is losing on a playing field it built. So what is the problem

Why is the Pixel not as loved? Is it the phone itself? If the Pixel phone is just a lousy product

it's logical that it is nowhere near Apple or Samsung in sales. According to StatCounter

Google has about 5% of the North American market. More than 95% of people choose something else

So is this a bad phone? Let's check. I scoured the PCMag archives. All 10 generations of the

base Pixel scored either excellent or outstanding ratings. The reviews are glowing about the Pixel's

photography skills. Many of the reviews say the cameras are incredible. The hardware is also

praised. Year after year, Google's refined the device, keeping it in line with Apple and Samsung's

most expensive phones. What about software? This is the most Android phone you can get

For generations, the Pixel received Android updates first. The latest Pixel floored me with its voice translation feature

In real time, the phone can translate between English and 10 languages

It even recreates each speaker's voice and intonation. That's sci-fi stuff. So we have a phone with amazing cameras, great hardware, and excellent software

It seems like the Pixel phone is one A-OK device. So why isn't the Google Pixel the iPhone of Android devices

Google controls the whole experience. It makes the hardware, it makes the software, everything in one. So I reached out to Jeffrey

Moore, principal at Wave 7 Research. Wave 7 Research keeps track of the U.S. wireless market

like it their job because it is Mr Moore surprised me with this For one thing the uh promotions are better around samsung galaxy as well as uh the iphone so the uh the major oems aren promoting it quite as hard

as they're promoting other things also uh google has close to zero percent share in the prepaid

space and also it's not as displayed as well in channels including national retail is this the

true answer google is not pushing the pixel enough there must be more of it so i kept digging around

Everywhere I turned, I was met with Google's merciless past of discontinuing products and services

Look at all these things flying by. Does the Google Grim Reaper stop sales of the Pixel

No, I don't think that's really a problem. I think that people are just in the habit of buying either an iPhone or a Samsung device

That habit plays a big role, but so does ecosystem lock-in. For Google to gain market share, it needs to eat a bigger piece of the pie

Which company has to lose for Google to win? I spoke with Jason Howell, host of AI Inside and former host of All About Android

He's a pixel person and a Virgo. I've even talked to a lot of iPhone users that say, you know, I've got issues with this

but still everything is there. I know how it works. And so I'm willing to overlook that because it would just be too much

Now, in the past, Android would get apps later than iOS. Now, all the major apps are on both platforms

So while it is easier to switch from an iPhone to a pixel, people are not doing it

So is it just a habit and ecosystem? Is this the reality? A nearly $4 trillion company is losing

because it does not run promotions and people stay with their phones because of habits

There must be more right Could Google be hampering the pixel on purpose Why can this huge company make a dent I talked to Tom Merritt host of the Daily Tech News Show He been covering tech for over 20 years I don know that Google doesn want to make the Pixel more successful

But I do know that Google doesn't want to jeopardize its Android relationships

with Samsung and Motorola and others. All right, so far, Google lacks a presence in the prepaid market

runs promotions that aren't as good as the competition. It could be trying to manage its relationship with other Android phone makers, too

Maybe the Pixel is just not a priority for Google. If the company wanted everyone to have a Pixel, they could go the Amazon route

That is, sell inexpensive devices to get you hooked on services. But instead, the Pixel seems more iPhone-like in pricing

Did you know that Google's parent company, Alphabet, does not break out Pixel sales in its financial reports

That's true. Pixel sales are within a category called Google Subscriptions, Platforms, and Devices

If that's surprising, subscribe. It gets weirder from here. This bucket, subscriptions, platforms, and devices, includes Pixel, and also YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, Google One, and Google Play fees

The whole bucket is about 11% of Alphabet's revenue. Pixel sales are somewhere in that 11%

Oh, and search alone is more than half of Google's revenue. Honestly, I think placing the Pixel inside of a larger group kind of tells the story in and of itself

If Google really wanted to go down the road of pixel is our priority here, then they'd

be pulling that out and they'd be trumpeting that every step of the way, the way Apple

does with its iPhone. The pixel is definitely not reaching iPhone level success

So if it not the priority financially what if it not supposed to be the priority at all In a 2024 interview Google hardware head Rick Osterloh said The Pixel is how we sort of intend Android to look for our users

and brings a lot of Google services exactly how we want them to be delivered

for users without anything else. So now the Pixel sounds more like a reference device

It is what Android should be. Other Android phone makers should look to the Pixel for inspiration

Osterloh is aware of the phone's struggles. He said, my principal goal is to try to improve Android competitiveness, improve our innovation, improve the problems we're able to solve for users at all tiers

But we've certainly had issues in the premium space that we want to try to address

Look, maybe there's just a bigger problem happening overall. Maybe phones have hit the ceiling

The modern smartphone debuted in 2007. So I chatted up PCMag's managing editor for Consumer Electronics, Eric Zeman

This guy knows phones the way people know the alphabet. I feel like there's just nowhere really more to do or more that further we can go with smartphones as a piece of hardware

We've reached all the limits. They're as big as they can really be. They last as long as they can be

The cameras are about as good as they can be. They're as fast as they can be

What we really need now is a category shift or a dynamic change in the operating system and how we interact with them

So what is stopping the Google Pixel? Bad distribution? Just habit? Deliberate restraint? Not a priority

Or the whole category is just maxed out? Which means the real answer might be the most annoying one

It's not one thing, it's all of them. A little. At once

Ten years in, and Google still has not decided what this phone is supposed to be

Maybe with the Pixel 11, that finally changes. I'm Aya Zak Tarn. I'll see you inside the green bubble