The fight between Android and Apple could soon turn into a direct fight between Google and Apple. Far from suffering from fierce competition, the Apple firm is keeping customers away from major Android brands, and Google is starting to get scared.
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According to a report published by informationGoogle would have taken the decision to move to the active direction of Android, to fight directly against Apple instead of playing a secondary role as before.
Google will focus on the Pixel
Google never wanted Android to be an exclusive project like iOS, and for this reason, from the start, it released the system under a free license and created an open platform that any manufacturer could join. Even when it launched its own mobiles, first the Nexus and then the Pixel, these devices were seen more as benchmarks than was possible with Android, rather than direct rivals to the iPhone. This resulted in acceptable, but mediocre sales compared to brands such as Samsung or Xiaomi.
Google has always been happy with it. She preferred to focus on her platform, with applications like Google Assistant with which she extended her influence to cellphones, tablets, watches and even cars with Android Auto. But this philosophy is about to change.
Google wants to prevent Android from losing market due to Samsung’s decline
The free Android
According to the leak, Google would not be happy with the current market situation, in which Apple is still very strong, even reaching rob users of brands like Samsung; in the United States, the Korean brand is falling at the same time as the apple brand is rising. For this reason, Google looks like it’s finally going to act on the issue, taking a more active role in selling mobile phones.
Ongoing internal restructuring means that the hardware division is gaining a lot of strength, and should now be one of the mainstays of the company. In other words, Pixels (whether mobile, tablet, or wearable) will be more important in the coming months, and Google will prioritize them over other projects. Evidenced by the fact that some employees are moved from projects like Google TV or Android Auto to the Wear OS and Pixel Tablet divisions.
The rest of the manufacturers and the assistant lose priority
This decision coincides with the closure and separation of other divisions; Recently, Google Stadia, the cloud gaming service accessible from any device, for example, announced its closure. Last September, Google also shut down Area 120, a research and development team that focused not on Android, but on exploring the possibilities of AI in general.
Google Assistant does not generate revenue, so Google will use it as a decoy for Pixels
The free Android
Google Assistant is the project that’s come out the worst of these restructurings, and it’s expected to lead to end of support on some platforms. According to sources, Google wants to spend less on Google Assistant for cars and non-Google devices, including TVs, headphones, speakers and watches. This does not mean that the Assistant will stop working, just that it will have more features exclusive to Pixels and the rest of the brands will have a simpler experience.
It’s something we’re already starting to see with Wear OS. The Pixel Watch has many exclusive features that are not available on watches from other brands. Fossil, for example, has already updated its watches to the same version of Wear OS, but they don’t have Google Assistant or Google Fit like the Pixel Watch.
This shift in priorities doesn’t mean that Google will stop working with other brands; The report explicitly states that Samsung and Xiaomi will remain allies to develop the best experience with Google services. But this means that apart from these few cases, Google will give priority to its own products, even if it means harming others.
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