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The shocking thing here is that Google sold less than 4.4 million smartphones in a quarter. Why is that? I thought with Google's brand name, they should be sell

The shocking thing here is that Google sold less than 4.4 million smartphones in a quarter. Why is that? I thought with Google's brand name, they should be selling a good number of them. Don't they have affiliations with carriers? Can people only buy them on their site?

paulddraper 9y ago
People can buy them from carriers, at least Verizon I know. Google offers only one or two (differing in size not features) phones every year or so. A huge number of phone sales are not flagship phones, but <$300 ones.
hsivonen 9y ago
Dunno about Pixel 2, but Pixel 1 was remarkably hard to buy, since Google shipped it only to a handful of countries.
- vesinisa 9y ago
  Same story, unavailable in all but the biggest markets.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> The shocking thing here is that Google sold less than 4.4 million smartphones in a quarter. Why is that? Google sells a couple flagship phones, no downmarket phones (they don't, AFAIK, even still sell their older flagships), and doesn't really market them heavily compared to the big players in the handset industry. I don't know if they have any carrier deals besides VZW. Compare this to Samsung, who currently has four flagships (S8/S8+/S8 Active/Note 8) and a dozens of downmarket phones plus still selling older flagship generations. Google isn't trying to compete across the whole spectrum of feature preferences and price sensitivity the way, say, Samsung is, and their unit sales reflect that.
kuschku 9y ago
The Google phones start around $900 in most countries, they only sell to like 5 countries, and they only partnered with a single carrier in the US. So, first of all, they don't sell in most countries where people would buy such expensive phones, and in the countries where people would buy these, Google either only sells through a single carrier, or through a web shop that requires a credit card. Which, for example, in Germany almost no one has (I think last time we discussed this @germanier linked a study showing 22% CC ownership?) Either way, they're limiting the people they sell to to a tiny market, and then they don't actually offer something special. The Pixel devices are some of the most expensive smartphones ever, but both special. They have the same waterproofing and features as a normal mid range phone, they have no exceptional warranty such as apple, they have no special software or hardware features like the Samsung Galaxy Note Series' Stylus.

paulddraper 9y ago

People can buy them from carriers, at least Verizon I know. Google offers only one or two (differing in size not features) phones every year or so. A huge number of phone sales are not flagship phones, but <$300 ones.

hsivonen 9y ago

Dunno about Pixel 2, but Pixel 1 was remarkably hard to buy, since Google shipped it only to a handful of countries.

vesinisa 9y ago
Same story, unavailable in all but the biggest markets.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> The shocking thing here is that Google sold less than 4.4 million smartphones in a quarter. Why is that? Google sells a couple flagship phones, no downmarket phones (they don't, AFAIK, even still sell their older flagships), and doesn't really market them heavily compared to the big players in the handset industry. I don't know if they have any carrier deals besides VZW. Compare this to Samsung, who currently has four flagships (S8/S8+/S8 Active/Note 8) and a dozens of downmarket phones plus still selling older flagship generations. Google isn't trying to compete across the whole spectrum of feature preferences and price sensitivity the way, say, Samsung is, and their unit sales reflect that.

kuschku 9y ago

The Google phones start around $900 in most countries, they only sell to like 5 countries, and they only partnered with a single carrier in the US. So, first of all, they don't sell in most countries where people would buy such expensive phones, and in the countries where people would buy these, Google either only sells through a single carrier, or through a web shop that requires a credit card. Which, for example, in Germany almost no one has (I think last time we discussed this @germanier linked a study showing 22% CC ownership?) Either way, they're limiting the people they sell to to a tiny market, and then they don't actually offer something special. The Pixel devices are some of the most expensive smartphones ever, but both special. They have the same waterproofing and features as a normal mid range phone, they have no exceptional warranty such as apple, they have no special software or hardware features like the Samsung Galaxy Note Series' Stylus.