The hardware on Pixel phones has been pretty great the past couple of years, and as you might expect, the brand is looking to continue this trend into the new year. However, there looks to be big changes going forward, as there are reports that Google is going to move its production process out of China.
There have been a lot of changes in the ways businesses operate, with constant uncertainty caused by increasing production costs and tariffs. Google will reportedly produce the Pixel, Pixel Pro, and Pixel Pro Fold in Vietnam, even conducting New Product Introduction (NPI) in the country as well.
A big change going forward
According to Nikkei Asia (via 9to5Google), this will take place for all high-end phones from Google, with production and NPI for the Pixel A series remaining in China. The NPI process is one of the more crucial moments for a product, with all the fine-tuning taking place that will ensure a solid production run.
According to the news outlet, NPI involves “hundreds of engineers from the company and its suppliers are involved, and heavy investment in testing equipment and tooling machines is required to ensure that the new design can actually be made according to the blueprints.” So, as you can imagine, this is a make-or-break situation for a company.
This isn’t going to be something entirely new from Google, which has been building products in Vietnam already. However, it has never done so from start to finish on its products in its entirety. Nikkei Asia shares that while moving the production can be done, it’s a fairly laborious process trying to get the people involved and equipment outside of China.
It has to happen
Although there are a lot of moving parts involved, this is a process that must succeed in order for production to move along. And while there’s a lot of risk involved, you can bet that Google will make things work in the end.
The new high-end Pixel phones are set to arrive sometime later this year, so there’s not much time to get this all in order. If this all comes to fruition, it will be interesting to see just how good or bad the hardware is when the new phones land.
Google is no stranger to hardware issues with its phones, but it has gotten better over time.
