I think the only thing holding Google's hardware back from being recognized as a design leader is the Google brand. Everybody already has an ingrained knowledg

I think the only thing holding Google's hardware back from being recognized as a design leader is the Google brand. Everybody already has an ingrained knowledge of what Google stands for, and it's not humanism or playfulness no matter how humanist or playful their industrial design is. If the narrative here was "a bunch of ex-google and motorola engineers have started a new hardware company. look at their adorable smart speakers" instead of "Google hired a bunch of ex motorola engineers and now is making hardware", these designs would be enough to get people excited. But because it's Google, it's not exciting.