Google records best Pixel smartphone shipments at 7.2 mn in 2019: IDC

The Pixel-series smartphones' shipments grew 52 per cent year-on-year at 7.2 million units and the company had outpaced OnePlus shipments in 2019.

Google’s Pixel business reportedly pushed out its best shipments figure in 2019. The Pixel-series smartphones’ shipments grew 52 per cent year-on-year at 7.2 million units and the company had outpaced OnePlus shipments in 2019, according to Francisco Jeronimo, Associate Vice President for EMEA Devices at IDC. Jeronimo attributed strong performances in the USA, Western Europe, and Japan regions for the rise in Pixel shipments. However, he said, the company is still far from reaching the top ten list.

In retrospective, Google did not launch its flagship Pixel 4-series smartphones in world’s second largest smartphone market India. The launch was curtailed as some components of the phones’ hardware did not meet the Indian regulations. Globally, the Pixel 4-series was received with great enthusiasm, but technology reviewers and consumers had mixed review about the products. However, based on IDC's findings, the Pixel 4-series' lacklustre reception had little impact on Google's momentum in the smartphone market. In 2019, the company’s affordable Pixel 3a-series and the premium Pixel 3 series managed to drive its shipments numbers.

Earlier, the IDC executive shared the global smartphone market shipments figure for first quarter of this year. According to Jeronimo’s post, the global smartphones market shipments stood at 275.2 million with Samsung leading the charts at 58.4 million, followed by Huawei at 49 million and Apple at 36.7 million.

It is expected that the second quarter global smartphones shipment numbers would be impacted due to coronavirus pandemic. Google’s 2020 numbers would also be impacted if the company does not release a new smartphone series, may be the Pixel 4a, because the company’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a has reached end of its sale life cycle.

Android Pie with better privacy features, AI now available on Google Pixel

The revised OS version will offer a new dashboard to users to help them understand how they are spending time on their device.

Tech giant Google today released Android 9 Pie, the latest version of its Android operating system that promises better user experience and enhanced privacy features.

The rollout comes at a time when users across the globe, including in India, are concerned about privacy and security of information on their smart devices.

The new OS version will start rolling out as an over-the-air update for Pixel phone users, while companies like Sony Mobile, Xiaomi, HMD Global, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Essential Phones as well as qualifying Android One will receive the update by the end of the year, Google said in a blogpost.

"We are also working with a number of other partners to launch or upgrade devices to Android 9 this year," it added.

"Android 9 aims to make your phone even smarter by learning from you and adapting to your usage patterns. It also helps you get things done faster, like predicting what you'll want to do next based on your context and displaying that action right on your phone," Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Android and Google Play said.

Android 9, which harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI), has been built to make the phone smarter by learning from user behaviour and adapting to usage patterns, the blog said.

"That's why Android 9 comes with features like Adaptive Battery, which learns the apps you use most and prioritises battery for them, and Adaptive Brightness, which learns how you like to set the brightness in different settings, and does it for you," it noted.

Google will also roll out "Slices" later this year that will show relevant information from apps. For example, if a user starts typing 'Lyft' into Google Search, the user will see a "slice" of the Lyft app, showing prices for the ride and the estimated time of arrival to enable the user take action more quickly and easily.

The US-based company said improving security is an important component in each of the platform releases.

"In addition to continuously hardening the platform, and an improved security model for biometrics, Android 9 enables industry-leading hardware security capabilities to allow protecting sensitive data like credit card information using a secure, dedicated chip," it said adding that privacy improvements have been made to help protect all web communications and keep them private.

Interestingly, the revised OS version will offer a new dashboard to users to help them understand how they are spending time on their device, including an 'App Timer', 'Do Not Disturb (DND)' and 'Wind Down' features.

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