Google announces ‘Made in India’ Pixel 8 models, experts say Pixel sales will boost by 3x in India now

Google has announced to roll out Made-in-India Pixel 8 smartphones to give a boost to local manufacturing in India. The Sundar Pichai-led tech giant made the announcement by posting on X. In the post, the company also thanked the Minister of Information and Broadcasting of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw for the partnership.

The post read, “Excited to announce that the first of our Made in India Google #Pixel8 devices have started rolling off the production lines Grateful for the partnership with Hon'ble Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw as we look forward to bringing the #TeamPixel experience to people across India”

Excited to announce that the first of our Made in India Google #Pixel8 devices have started rolling off the production lines 🥹

Grateful for the partnership with Hon'ble Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw as we look forward to bringing the #TeamPixel experience to people across India 🤝 pic.twitter.com/6nKvvcyFkj

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) August 12, 2024

Last month, Moneycontrol reported that Pixel 8 model production will be taken care of by two manufacturing firms: Foxconn and Dixon Technologies, in India. The report added that the company is likely to make India a key hub for manufacturing Pixel phones in India. They will initially be exported to Europe, followed by the US market.

The report also revealed that the demand for Pixel phones is scarce in India and hence the company is planning to export most of the locally produced devices leveraging the PLI benefits.

Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research told Tech Today, that Pixel 2023 market share in India was 0.25 per cent and in premium, it was 1 per cent. He said, “With new updates and focus on the Indian market. We expect sales of pixel devices in India to become 3X within a year. Market share in Q2 was 0.4 per cent but most of the growth is expected in 2 half of the year.”

He added, “Google is likely to gain momentum from the GenAI and camera capabilities. Additionally, the channel expansion and local manufacturing indicates at better pricing of new products.” He believes that Google has a good chance to gain a share in the Enterprise segment as well.

Prabhu Ram, VP - Industry Research Group (IRG), CyberMedia Research (CMR) told us, "Google has enjoyed a minuscule 0.1 per cent market in India smartphone market. The roll-out of the first Google Pixel 8 devices a year after Google first made its intent to make in India marks the beginning of a long journey for the brand to truly realize its potential in India."

The announcement was made just one day prior to the launch of the Google Pixel 9 series in India which will take place on today i.e. August 13 at 10.30 PM IST.