A few posts came out yesterday that provided greater clarity on Google’s ambitions with Pixel and how those ambitions may impact the overall Android ecosystem.
First, an interview with Hiroshi Lockheimer came out yesterday where he explained in detail how Google is separating the hardware team from the Android team. Hiroshi leads the Android team and said he would basically treat Rick’s internal Google hardware team just like any other OEM. He is telling us to think of the Google hardware team like any OEM. They have the ability to take what the Android team does and use it in ways they see best for their hardware ambitions. Here is the full answer giving a little clarity at this point:
Lockheimer: Being a platform provider and knowing a manufacturer on the other side will take your platform customize it and commercialize it — that’s one model, and it’s worked great for us at massive scale. That is a different kind of engineering than Rick’s team. We’ll continue to develop the platform — that’s my job. Rick’s team will take that to a level of completion, polish, thoroughness that a platform by itself in abstract won’t get. That’s a pretty big shift. The Nexus devices have been the purest form of Android in the past. Pixel is the purest form of Google, which is Android plus a whole lot of other stuff like the Assistant, our VR platform and so on.
It makes sense to have the Google hardware team isolated from the Android team. In many ways, Microsoft’s Surface team operates under the same organizational structure to keep them at arm’s length from the Windows team. Both companies’ platform and software efforts view their hardware divisions as just another partner.
The question I still wrestle with is what will Google do to differentiate Android on their hardware? This article from Techcrunch may provide some additional clarity.
Google is bundling on the new device things like Allo, and their Photos app, along with a few other things where OEMs have choices. OEMs can ship any number of different email, calendar, contacts, photos, and more type apps when they make Android. Users can generally install other things from Google on the Play Store and use all the core Google services they are bundling on the Pixel. But most people don’t do that, which is why the core bundling of all the Google services out of the box is the big differentiator here. As Hiroshi says in the Bloomberg interview, the Pixel is not just the best of Android, it is the best of Google bundled onto one device.
However, this section from the Techcrunch article is a little puzzling and the root of what would be a strategic error potentially:
Most notably, Android 7.1, the updated version of Nougat that powers the Pixel and Pixel XL, is lacking Google Assistant. This smart virtual helper is Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa. It’s a lot more robust than Google Now, the current digital assistant that ships on today’s Android devices and in the standalone Google app.
People were tweeting this article yesterday commenting on the percieved exclusivity of Assistant. This would be a huge strategic blunder, even though I understand why they may consider it. The AI piece of this is critical. Google needs as many people as possible using it to create some lock-in around the personal assistant. I maintain, whoever cracks this “most personal” assistant for me has as a customer for life. There may be no single more sticky feature than a powerful assistant that knows me intimately and works on my behalf to make my life easier. The personal AI will be the critical consumer battle over the next decade.
Pixel phones will represent such a small share of the overall Android pie for some time (if not indefinitely) that, by keeping this most critical element of the future exclusive to a small minority, is a tactical mistake. However, I don’t actually think that is what Google will do. In Hiroshi’s interview, he makes this statement:
Lockheimer: Rick’s team will use our platform, but they will also work very closely with Google’s Search team, or the Maps team, or the Assistant team in ways that perhaps other OEMs may not want to. Other OEMs may want to differentiate and do their own thing, their own Assistant for example.
The answer he provided sound like Assistant is or will be exclusive. It does sound like there is flexibility on how Assistant can be used and integrated, but it also sounds as if an OEM came to them and wanted to use it, they would be able to. It also may be likely that Assistant comes as a dedicated app or something from the Android Play Store and iOS someday as well. Again, Google can’t leave potential users on the table here given how important AI is to the future.
They do recognize other OEMS may want to do their own assistants and that is fine. But what if I buy a Samsung phone and a Google Home? What assistant will I want to use? Am I forced to use Samsung’s when I may want Google’s? Google may say, well that’s why you buy a Pixel. However, this is not how consumers actually work nor is this how Google’s business model works. If Assistant stayed exclusive to Google Pixel, then it will likely never have as big a userbase as Siri. At which point we would conclude Apple won the personal assistant war over Google? This is why I doubt Google keeps it exclusive.
Trying to balance the horizontal and vertical is exceptionally difficult and we are honestly in new territory with Google and Microsoft attempting to do something that has not been done before and has a great many strategic issues surrounding it.
I like Google’s positioning of “the best of Google” on a device. That will likely always be true of the Pixel experience. However, should any OEM come to them and want to bundle many of the things bundled on the Pixel, it would be impossible for Google to say no. Yes, Pixel will always be the best experience at a premium, but an OEM can build a “good enough” Pixel and bundle many of the same features and sell it for less. I have no doubt this will happen, particularly in India and other emerging areas.
Apple’s margin, meaning the premium price consumers are willing to pay over a low-end, good enough option, have everything to do with the exclusivity that is iOS as a whole. This is where Pixel and Surface differ dramatically from Apple’s strategy and the core reason why both Surface and Pixel will always be subject to a good enough competitor — thus limiting their full market potential outside of some niche areas in the high end of the market.
It sounds like the Google Pixel is going to follow a fate similar to the Moto X.
I’m surprised by the similarities like separation from the Android division and the choice of questionable features for differentiation.
So they are saying the hardware team is independent from the OS team at Google but not from Google itself because they are budding all the things other OEMs don’t bundle. So there continues to be some areas of conflict with their non Pixel hardware partners. I wonder how that goes down with other OEMs. But they may not have an option unless they choose MS.
Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out more details.