The internet giant Google is just 24 hours away from launching its Pixel smart phones. After a long gap, it is rising up again in the world of hardware, slowly changing its approach from affordable AndroidOne handsets to premium handsets.
The Pixel Smart phones are expected to hit the country with a maximum retail price of Rs 49,000. It is specially targeted at the consumers who want a good option in Android phones at the cheaper premium segment.
Google has failed to make progress in its handsets business. It even hasn’t been able to succeed in its Android One programme till date that aimed to put cheap Smartphone in the vicinity of the users.
AndroidOne programme that was launched way back in 2014, had managed to sell 3 million devices in one entire year of its existence across 19 countries from September 2014 to September 2015.
In its first year of existence, AndroidOne had shipped 1.2 million devices, making up a meagre 3.5% of the smartphones in the $50-$100 price category in India. That time also, the internet giant Google’s effort at making an LTE-powered Android one device in the Lava Pixel V1 in the category of $150, fizzled out after a promising start.
At present, the Cupertino-headquartered Apple is also under a lot of pressure to crack sales in Indian market as sales in China, its largest market outside US, have slowed down.