Google Pixel Eyes India Production

Having witnessed Apple and Samsung use India as an offshore assembly destination for their smartphones and other gadgets, Google is now aiming to follow suit. At least, that’s what news reports indicate, though how the move would benefit India’s growing reputation as a global contract manufacturer will always remain. 

Google haters may be quick to point out what they perceive to be tokenism at best, given that the company has been under the pump on multiple counts – be it the lawsuits over antitrust or the more recent battle with Indian startups in what is considered to be one of the largest apex associations governing the IT industry. 

Govt. pitches, Google accepts, but there’s a catch

Readers would recall that Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had met Google’s head honcho Sundar Pichai at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View. Reports suggested that the minister made a pitch for the government’s make-in-India initiatives as well as other state-backed technology-led opportunities. 

For now, the only thing we know about Google’s Pixel intent comes from a published article in the ET which claims the company is seeking suppliers in India to assemble Pixel smartphones. Some of the names finding mention as prospective partners include Lava International, Dixon Technologies and Foxconn’s India unit Bharat FIH. 

Of course, there’s nothing official about these reports, which is what makes the skeptics wary of Google’s intent. For starters, the company seldom gives actual production numbers. The closest it came was when Pichai claimed that in 2022, their Pixel 6a, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a became the best-selling generation of handsets from its stable. 

Would the numbers make sense for an Indian company?

Even if the company does identify a partner, the question to be asked is what percentage of their output would shift to India and whether such a move would make business sense to any of the above-mentioned companies that currently dabble in millions of units. Google phones have caught the user’s imagination due to its custom software, but for the assemblers it may not really make sense to invest unless the numbers are large enough. 

And if the idea is to utilize the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the total numbers may not make it feasible – both for Google and the government. Which is why the chorus of tokenism is gathering steam. Readers would recall that Apple utilized the scheme to broaden its supplier base in India and tripled iPhone output to over $7 billion in FY23. 

Is it all smoke and no fire?

Another way to perceive the story could be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing visit to the United States where he is slated to meet industry leaders including Elon Musk and possibly Sundar Pichai. These reports would definitely provide them with something to talk about, especially since Google isn’t exactly cutting favors with the local industry or government.

The article claims that Google executives came calling for partnership discussions in June with the likes of Ana Corrales (who heads the consumer hardware division) and Maggie Wei, senior director for global sustaining product operations meeting up with representatives of companies in India for possible contract manufacture.  

According to data provided by Counterpoint Research, Google manufactured nine million Pixel handsets last year. The question though is how much of this would shift away from China into India. In the past, Google has seldom launched the Pixel series in India though the last couple of occasions it did do so. 

While Apple has witnessed steady growth in the sale of its products in India, which resulted in the company opening the first two stores in the country a couple of months ago, Google is nowhere in the picture across the country – both as a seller of high priced smartphones or any of its other gadgets.