Google Pixel 3a Series May Find Growth in Mature Markets, But Not in India: Analysts

Google’s smartphone business has been struggling to gain ground even as rivals Apple, Samsung and Huawei continue to upend competition with better “specced” devices every quarter. Samsung grabbed the top position with 21% market share while Huawei, with 17% share was at the second spot and Apple settled at the third spot with 12% share in the global smartphone market in Q1 2019, according to Counterpoint Research. Google Pixel, on the other hand, has a minuscule global market share despite arriving on the scene in 2016.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

Google,Google Pixel,Google Pixel 3a,Google Pixel 3a XL,Pixel 3a India

The mid-tier Pixel 3a and 3a XL, which cost Rs 39,999 and Rs 44,999 respectively, are now being seen as Google’s attempt to revive dwindling sales numbers. According to Counterpoint, the Internet giant’s channel strategy stunted the growth of Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.

“While one could always debate about the Pixel 3 price upgrade as compared to its Pixel 2 series ($150 more) vis-a-vis spec upgrade, it was the channel strategy which constrained the growth of Pixel 3,” Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, told IANS.

The tech giant, earlier in April, admitted that it sold fewer Pixel phones owing to industry-wide pressure on high-end smartphones.

“Hardware results reflect lower year-on-year sales of Pixel, reflecting in part heavy promotional activity industry-wide given some of the recent pressures in the premium smartphone market,” Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google CFO had said in April.

However, according to Chauhan, Google has a chance to start things from scratch in some of the emerging countries like India, where the premium market is growing fast.