End of Pixels from China. Google Reportedly Moving Production of Phones, Watches, and Headphones

Google’s shift away from Chinese factories has been ongoing for several years, but until now it has been a gradual relocation. According to a Nikkei report, the company is now preparing to draw a line: by 2027, it wants to stop manufacturing everything that bears the Pixel brand in China. This includes not only phones but also watches and wireless headphones.

Phones made it, the rest will be easier

Google’s confidence stems from this year’s experience. The company successfully launched the development and manufacturing of Pixel phones in Vietnam, and since a phone is significantly more complex to produce than a watch or headphones, the rest of the portfolio should be a formality. In addition to Vietnam, capacity is also expanding in India. Furthermore, leaving China complicates Google’s life less than others – it doesn’t sell any phones in China, so it doesn’t have to deal with relations with the local market. Samsung had the same reason at one time, as its share of the Chinese market is negligible.

The Memory Order Trick

An interesting detail is how Google defends against rising component prices. At a time when memory prices are driving up costs across the entire industry, the company reportedly combines memory orders for phones with orders for its cloud business and then negotiates from a significantly stronger position with the trio of suppliers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. This year, it plans to deliver 8 to 10 percent more phones than last year, when it sold approximately twelve million.

Betting on Apple Raising Prices

The boldest claim in the entire report comes from an unnamed manager of one of the component suppliers. According to him, Google could carve out a portion of Apple’s market in the United States, Japan, and Europe if the American company raises iPhone prices due to rising costs. This sounds logical, but it remains a speculation from one anonymous source – and twelve million Pixels annually is still a different league compared to more than two hundred million iPhones sold. Furthermore, Google has not officially commented on the plans.

Does where a phone is manufactured play a role in your choice?

Source: GSMArena, Nikkei Asia