Google is banking on Pixel hardware to fight Apple and isn’t emphasizing the Assistant

Recession and regulation lead Google to turn to hardware

Google has long been in a position to help it dominate the mobile phone market. Hardware partners such as Samsung provide the devices themselves (with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra currently one of the best smartphones ever), which all have to be equipped with Google software under a license agreement. Even Apple phones ship with Google as the default search engine for Safari. But those things could change as antitrust authorities seek to unravel the lucrative Apple-Google deal while Samsung loses ground in the US market. A report suggests that Google plans to further strengthen its hardware division at the expense of Assistant improvements.

According to The Information, Google is restructuring its teams internally to focus more on its own hardware efforts. Google executives identified the company’s hardware division as one of the key pillars going forward, as it allows Google full control over the software running on devices. This is especially important given Samsung’s decline in the US and Apple’s market share surpassing 50% in the country for the first time this year.

At the same time, Google is draining resources from projects it deems not profitable enough. The company has already largely closed its in-house Area 120 incubator and completed half of the division’s projects. But that doesn’t seem to be all. The company is also diverting employees away from Assistant projects focused on devices not made by Google, like TVs, cars, headphones, and wearables. The company instead wants to focus on its main hardware partners, with Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus named as Google’s premium partners.

Google doesn’t want to rely solely on Samsung for the success of Android in the US

So far it doesn’t look like any of the side projects are about to be killed entirely, but since Google can’t seem to find a way to monetize its voice assistant, it makes sense that the company would want to focus on making the system primarily for Develop products that make money.

Right now, Apple’s market dominance isn’t an issue for Google per se, as the companies have a lucrative deal to make Google Search the default search engine on Safari. However, with regulatory scrutiny looming and rumors of Apple launching its own search service, Google doesn’t appear to be counting on that partnership anymore.

The information also reveals that Google is working on a tablet that is “still under wraps”. Since the company already made the Pixel tablet official during Google I/O and then talked more about it during the launch of the Google Pixel 7 Pro and 7, we assume this isn’t the tablet the publication is talking about. With the Pixel tablet set to launch in the first half of 2023, there might actually be enough room for another Google tablet to come out in the same year.

What doesn’t seem to fit with this new hardware-focused strategy is the fact that Google only recently ditched its own Chromebook hardware division, which should release a Google-made Pixelbook in the near future. It’s possible that Google could bring this business back after refocusing its strategy, although the company is unlikely to reverse its decision any time soon.

Another project set to be cut recently is Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming streaming service, which only released to fanfare in 2019. The company will refund all purchases made on Stadia, including hardware like the controllers, which will likely hurt its bottom line even more in the short term.