New Delhi: According to business officials, Google will begin building its Pixel smartphone collection in India, making it the latest tech giant to place a bet on the South Asian device manufacturing sector.
Rick Osterloh, Senior VP of Devices and Services at Google, revealed the company’s plans to begin local manufacturing of the new Pixel 8 smartphone in India and anticipates shipping the batch starting next year during the company’s annual India event on Thursday.
The news on Thursday comes after Google and HP recently partnered to produce Chromebook computers domestically.
Similar to Apple, Google has been quietly expanding its manufacturing base outside of China, and this news indicates that the company will continue to prioritise India as a key market for the upcoming years.
Regarding availability, the domestically manufactured Pixel 8 series is scheduled to launch in 2024. Google, on the other hand, made no formal comments on the price.
It is reasonable to assume that by six months of their release, if we follow the pricing trends of these devices, the costs have significantly decreased, and chances are it’s even going to drop more as of now, they are manufactured in India. Additionally, Indian consumers can now afford the premium Pixel 8 at an affordable price.
As of this moment, formal customer assistance is provided by Google in collaboration with F1. However, only 27 F1 service locations in India are capable of offering support to Pixel devices. Going forward, things could become better if Google assembles the Pixel 8 domestically in India.
Google is looking at manufacturing possibilities in India in an effort to take advantage of the friendly business environment and large pool of trained labour in the nation. The government of India has launched a number of programmes to support domestic manufacturing, such as the “Make in India” campaign, which promotes both international and domestic businesses to produce their goods in the nation. These initiatives have produced reduced rules, better infrastructure, and a range of commercial incentives.
Google could benefit from the possible relocation of Pixel smartphone manufacturing to India in a number of aspects. First of all, it would assist the business to establish a regionally focused supply chain, which would decrease its dependence on outside vendors and perhaps save manufacturing costs. Furthermore, Google would be able to precisely address the requirements and preferences of the quickly expanding Indian smartphone market if it were to establish manufacturing operations there. Given that the country still has a relatively low Pixel smartphone penetration rate, India offers Google another huge growth opportunity.
