Manufacturers in India may save the day
The Google Pixel 6 is one of the best Android phones available this year and the Pixel 7 launch is right around the corner, but Google isn’t resting easy. COVID keeps causing lockdowns in China, to say nothing of shaky international relations threatening to affect trade, and with new-Pixel-season just weeks away, it sounds like Google may be getting nervous about the ability of manufacturing to keep up with demand. The tech titan is now reportedly considering shifting as much as 20 percent of Pixel phone production to China’s neighbor, India.
According to people familiar with Google’s plans, The Information reports that the company could stop producing Pixels exclusively in China. Supposedly, Google has been looking at Indian manufacturers to produce between 500,000 and a million Pixel phones annually. It reportedly wants to act before it is caught up in the next COVID surge or a possible China-US trade war, with the White House levying heavy sanctions on Chinese-made goods and services.
Sweetening the deal, India offers international brands subsidies to encourage setting up production facilities on its shores, like a 20 percent import duty reduction for phones made locally. The country’s burgeoning consumer marketplace is also lucrative for businesses, and to further slash its risk and production cost, the Google is reportedly scoping out ways to locally source materials like glue, tape, insulation, and even parts for smartphone displays for this effort.
Even if Indian production does take off, keep in mind that few of these phones will likely remain in the country — just 100,000 Pixel phones were sold in India last year, and the Pixel 6 series never even made its way to the Indian market until the Pixel 6a did. And even if assembly does take place in the nation, the vast majority of components would still be shipped in from China.
Google wouldn’t be pulling off a novel move here — Samsung and Apple have also shifted parts of their phone production to India. The former has transitioned almost entirely while the iPhone maker has active contracts with Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron to reduce its reliance on Chinese production and the associated COVID-related delays. If Google pulls the trigger on this shift, it may end up working with the same local assemblers as Apple.
So far, Google has yet to confirm any interest in shifting manufacturing to India.
