The Pixel 3 was the last flagship phone that Google launched in India; neither the Pixel 4 nor the Pixel 5 have reached one of the largest smartphone markets in the world. While it still doesn’t look like Pixel flagships are going to get there anytime soon, Google may be planning a surprisingly Indian launch for its next mid-range phone.
According to a senior Google executive, as reported by Economic Times, the company plans to allocate a larger portion of Pixel 5a devices to the Indian market from its global inventory. Pixel 4a, due to Google’s lack of foresight and strategy (and probably partly due to the pandemic that affected supply chains), ended up running out of stock more often, despite Google supposedly doubling its stock compared to 3a.
Although the Pixel 5a may be available en masse, the executive still has doubts about the availability of Pixel 5G phones in the country, since there is no 5G network to take advantage of. While that doesn’t give us much to work with, it could mean that the Pixel 6 will never make it to the Indian shores.
Google is also exploring the possibility of transferring part of its device manufacturing process to India. This would help the company save on import tariffs and take advantage of the country’s economic incentives to improve the price of its phones. Even if it does, don’t expect to see radical changes overnight.
