Comment: It's easy to see Google's newly unveiled Pixel smartphones as an act of war. When October 20 rolls around, Google's premium devices will not only go head-to-head with the iPhone, but with Samsung's platoon of high-end smartphones.
Google is ostensibly pitching the Pixel as the "iPhone of the Android world"; the kind of device you get when hardware and software are built in tandem. In fact, the design is a little too similar and the phones are sold at almost identical price points.
While Google may be hoping to sway the iFaithful, it seems easier to convert those already in the Android ecosystem. As such, Google will - for the first time - be actively competing with its OEM partners. Sure, Google had its name on Nexus smartphones before now, but those were designed for developers and enthusiasts. They weren't exactly mass market products.
Pixel, on the other hand, is a premium consumer smartphone. It's got a sleek glass and aluminium build. It has a fantastic camera. It's fast. It has the latest and greatest software. It's easy to see that Google is vying for pole position. And Samsung should be worried.
To date, Samsung is one of a few original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that has had much success with premium Android phones. So much so that Samsung smartphones have almost become synonymous with Android. For many, it's not iPhone vs. Android, it's iPhone vs. Samsung.
Of course, Samsung has spent years (and billions of dollars in marketing) building up its reputation as a smartphone manufacturer. A well-timed lawsuit or two certainly didn't hurt either; headlines of "Apple vs. Samsung" almost certainly helped solidify the idea that Samsung was who you turned to when you wanted a non-Apple smartphone.
While every Samsung smartphone sale is still a win for Google, it's clear that Google wants more.
Google building its own phones seems like a plausible way to achieve this goal. After all, there's a compelling marketing message behind the idea of software and hardware being built in sync. It suggests reliability, performance, and support. Other factors obviously come into play - battery life, camera quality, design - but Google already seems to have a decent grip on those.
Google is edging in on the premium space, and could match Samsung's marketing muscle; it's not like Google is short on money. The travelling "made by Google" signs that popped up around Australia could be a sign of things to come; we could soon be seeing Pixel billboards, bus ads, and TV spots. It's safe to say that Google won't be able to make a dent in Samsung's market share without dropping some dosh.
The question is how will Samsung react to a genuine competitor in the premium space? The simplest answer is to spend more money on its own marketing.
Samsung could also very well try and further distance itself from Google. It already customises Android extensively, has its own app store, and its own mobile payment solution. Notably, Samsung has also purchased Viv - a new AI platform from the original creators of Siri. Google sees AI as the future of computing, so it's no surprise that Samsung wants to be in the space too.
Of course, Samsung could always abandon Android. It already has its own mobile operating system - Tizen - that it uses on budget smartphones sold in international markets. Samsung executives reportedly see Tizen as a sort of "plan B" in case Google gets too hard to work with. It would certainly be interesting to see if Samsung has enough brand loyalty to get existing users to follow them to a new platform, or if they'd bleed to Apple and another Android OEMs.
It's not like Google is going to take away Samsung's market share over night, but the company's biggest ally in the smartphone wars is poised to be a major competitor. Given enough time, there's a genuine chance the question we ask when buying a new smartphone could shift from "Apple or Samsung?" to "Apple or Google?".
Alex Choros
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