Google Pixel 2 confirmed for later this year

Fariha Khan
March 6, 2017
1,493

Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of hardware, expressed during a meeting in Barcelona that there will indeed be a second generation Pixel announced later in 2017. He also stated that the Pixel brand will “stay premium”

There is an annual rhythm in the industry. So, you can count on us to follow it,

Osterloh stated in a meeting and also confirm that a successor is in the works for this year as well. However, he didn’t mention any particular date:

You can count on a successor this year, even if you don’t hear a date from me now.

Osterloh touched on another subject… he said that the Pixel brand will remain “premium.” He apparently didn’t talk about the likelihood of Google making or partnering with OEMs to make its own affordable handsets. In addition, he didn’t indicate the possibility of bringing Pixel-like devices to emerging markets as well.

According to earlier reports, Google is internally testing some prototypes of a device internally known as “Pixel 2B”. We got to know that the device would launch “alongside or shortly after Pixel 2” with a lower-price point and less powerful hardware, aiming at different markets. In addition, we learnt that Google’s objective is to bring the “Google experience and the Google Phone to emerging markets.”

Bringing a “Google Phone” to emerging markets sounds plausible for sure and wouldn’t be something impossible for the firm that spearheaded the Android One initiative to bring an almost-pure Google software experience with quicker security updates to emerging markets. Providing a low-priced device for those markets would offer some of the same complete control advantages as we’ve seen with the Pixel while still bringing decent devices to “the next billion.”