When Google short of reinvented the Pixel line from the 6 onwards with their own chip, you could see what the template for the line was shaping up to be.
The goal was to compete with the iPhone and less so Android’s biggest cash cow which is Samsung who Google for better or worse has to maintain a level of partnership with that it doesn’t have with other Android OEMs.
What has worked for Apple and the iPhone is that Apple rarely speaks directly about hardware specs or technical info about the iPhone unless they can dumb it down in a way that works for the marketing of whatever hardware the spec is attached to and sells the device even more. As a result, for years, a large majority of iPhone buyers have little to no clue what powers their phone, if their phone uses a 60Hz display or 120Hz, so on and so forth. iPhone buyers expectations are that the latest iPhone is somehow faster, possibly lighter, may get better battery life, may be more durable, you get the picture.
It feels like a no-brainer that who better to replicate this iPhone formula on Android than the creator of the platform who happens to also make their own phones and their own chip. More and more, the average Pixel buyer is very much similar to the average iPhone buyer and this is naturally by design by Google. While I don’t have any data for this, Pixels do seem from the general talk out there from lifelong iPhone users to be a popular swap to make instead of a Galaxy for instance.
US enthusiasts can continue giving Google flack with each new Pixel generation that continues to disappoint albeit a bit less every year but Google isn’t targeting enthusiasts who are a tiny sliver of the market and they are trying to grow the brand with the largest net they can cast and it’s clearly working with their market share steadily growing.
