Although the control of Android system, but Google has never given up manufacturing hardware plan.
According to the latest data from market research firm IDC, Google's 2017 Pixel and Pixel 2 shipments totaled 3.9 million units.
IDC analyst and research director Francisco Jeronimo said the figure includes two generations of Google's handsets, Pixel 1 and Pixel 2. Compared with the 1.5 billion shipments of the global smartphone market, this only accounts for 'A very small part.' And in just the fourth quarter of 2017, Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones.
The analyst also said Pixel handsets double sales in 2017. The data from another market research firm Kantar Worldpanel also provide the same conclusion: Google's share of the U.S. handset market has risen from 1.8% to 2.8% .
Although the number looks small, but Google continues to overweight Pixel mobile phone development team.
January 30 this year, Google and HTC jointly announced that Google 1.1 billion acquisition of the HTC Pixel team has been officially completed.
According to the agreement, after the completion of this transaction, Google will get the entire HTC Pixel team, including more than 2,000 intelligent machine experts, which is equivalent to the current number of one-fifth of the HTC engineering team. At the same time, it also makes Taipei a Google's largest engineering center in the Asia Pacific region.In addition to the team, HTC also non-exclusive ownership of some intellectual property rights to Google.
Rick Osterloh, head of hardware operations at Google, commented: "In the coming years, a talented team will work to bring better and more innovative products to everyone," said Rick Osterloh, head of hardware operations at Google. '