Google’s Pixel Phone and Watch Are Best Apple Alternatives Yet
- Company is building out an Apple-like hardware ecosystem
- Pixel serves as showcase of Google’s AI and Android software
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google has been selling smartphones under its own brand for a dozen years, but its failure to break through into mainstream consciousness has been so total that its latest ads start by asking, “did you know Google makes a phone?”
The company best known for its online services is trying once again with the seventh generation of its Pixel smartphones -- but this time it’s making a serious ecosystem play by adding a smartwatch and “introducing a true portfolio of Pixel products for the first time,” in the words of senior vice president and hardware chief Rick Osterloh.