Little is known about the Google Pixel 3’s design, or, indeed, what the Search giant has planned for the future of its smartphone division in terms of hardware.
We do know, however, that Apple, Samsung and a handful of other Android manufacturers are racing to launch the world’s first truly foldable phone, so where’s Google?
The list of Android manufacturers that have joined the likes of Samsung to build a working flexible smartphone grows by the month. Last year it was all about Samsung, this year Apple, Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and ZTE are all manically bending glass panels in their respective basement labs.
But then there’s Google. The data-hoarding Search company that is perennially half-in, half-out of hardware products. It produces some of the best phones - if not the best phone - on the market, but it doesn’t make enough of them. Or it casually launches one of the best tablets/ Chromebook hybrids around and immediately drops the product line entirely a year later.
We’re hearing the occasional rumor about Google’s next flagship phone, but there’s nothing about flexible technology. Indeed, I asked Google about exactly this and predictably got told that it has nothing to say on the topic.
The complexity, cost and scale of producing a folding phone means more people involved in the supply chain and therefore more leaks. Also, most companies working on this technology have been fairly open about their plans for the future.
It’s entirely possible that the Mountain View-based company has something radical up its sleeve that it has managed to keep very secret, but it’s unlikely. There are simply too many moving parts to keep a device like a foldable phone project - a concept that’s ostensibly the future of mobile - quiet when one of the world’s biggest companies is working on it.
This leads me to think Google isn’t working on it foldable technology at all. Or, at the very least, it doesn’t have any plans to participate in the first wave of devices that will launch early next year.
Perhaps it is waiting to see how the public reacts to entirely new form factor before bringing out its own product. Even so, from following the development of the Galaxy X for a few years, the technological and manufacturing complexities make it seem like foldable technology isn’t something a company decides to get into on a whim. Or, at least, not without a couple of years of R&D and preparation beforehand.
There’s another possibility that Google is going in a different direction entirely. The Pixel-maker’s vision was clear at Google IO: it wants you to use your phone less.
Every new Android P update mentioned at IO and every upcoming feature for Assistant was underpinned by either enhanced voice control or predictive features that result in fewer taps.
Take Android P’s newest functions “Actions” and “Slices” which, in essence, reduce the amount of interaction needed to perform a particular task. For example, with Slices, searching your phone for the Uber app will bring up the functionality to order a cab without opening the app. Actions, on the other hand, will provide content from apps based on your previous behavior - if you listen to music at a particular time, Google will offer up the app and functionality without prompt.
It’s simple but indicative of Google’s vision. Fewer taps, less effort and reduced screen time. Years of complex machine learning research has been boiled down into the phrase ‘let me get that for you’.
The roll call of similar updates have the same result too. Your Match on Google Maps reduces restaurant research, adaptive battery and adaptive brightness eliminates endlessly toggling the settings. There’s also routines, Google lens, clearer Google Maps directions and Google Duplex, which can call up restaurants and make appointments for you in a deceptive but genuine-sounding human voice, is all part of the automation package.
Perhaps Google’s folding phone is a screenless, oblong voice assistant instead of a bendy screen. Or, maybe, it’s just behind the curve.
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