Pixel chief says ‘very few’ Pixel users are coming from Samsung phones

Google Pixel phones don’t crack the top five when it comes to global market share, but they certainly have some vocal fans. Where are these Pixel owners coming from, though? Well, a Google executive says they’re not actually coming from Samsung.

Google senior vice-president Rick Osterloh told Stratechery in an interview (spotted via 9to5Google) that “very few” Pixel owners come from Samsung devices. That’s a particularly interesting claim as Samsung is the top smartphone brand globally, so it would be a reasonable assumption that many Pixel owners previously had Galaxy phones.

The Pixel chief outlined where Pixel owners were moving from in a follow-up answer:

They’re coming from a large number of people, some of whom who’ve (sic) left the market and then also from Apple but ultimately, we think what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to gain Android share overall and that’s my principal goal is to try to improve Android competitiveness, improve our innovation, improve the problems we’re able to solve for users at all tiers. But we’ve certainly had issues in the premium space that we want to try to address.

For what it’s worth, Pixel phones have made major strides in Japan primarily because local brands are struggling. In fact, local manufacturer Kyocera announced plans to leave the consumer phone market just over a year ago. Google’s rise in the US in the last few years also partially coincided with LG’s departure from the smartphone market.

Nevertheless, it isn’t surprising to hear that some Pixel owners migrated from iPhones. Google has long courted iPhone users through its marketing and attractive trade-in deals.

It’s also interesting that Osterloh acknowledged “issues in the premium space.” He didn’t delve into these problems, but the company’s phones have long been criticized for disappointing general performance compared to rival devices as well as unreliable connectivity. Google has sought to address the latter with a new modem, though. The company is also expected to switch chip manufacturers from Samsung to TSMC in 2025, and this could yield performance and battery life gains.