Google Remains a Niche Player in the Smartphone Market

A week after Google unveiled the new Pixel 8a, the company's latest addition to its smartphone line-up is going on sale today. The Pixel 8a brings AI capabilities to the more affordable line of Pixel phones with Google touting its "unbeatable value" starting at $499 in the United States.

Having worked with various hardware makers before, Google debuted the “made by Google” Pixel smartphones in 2016. But despite good reviews and attractive price points, the company never really cracked the smartphone market, selling just a fraction of the devices market leaders Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi move year after year.

According to Statista Consumer Insights, Google remains a niche player in the smartphone market to this day, with less than five percent of smartphone users calling a Google device their main phone in most major markets. As our chart shows, Google phones are most popular in Canada and the U.S., where they're used by 5.5 and 4.5 percent of smartphone users, respectively. And yet, according to Canalys estimates, Google only shipped 2.6 million smartphones in North America in the first half of 2023, while market leader Apple shipped 35 million iPhones.

Thankfully for Google, or its parent Alphabet to be more precise, the company doesn't rely on smartphone sales the way that Apple does. Last year, the operating segment that includes all of Google's hardware products as well as Google Play, YouTube subscriptions and other products and services accounted for just 11 percent of Alphabet's total revenue, while advertising accounted for almost 80 percent. At Apple, the iPhone alone accounted for more than 50 percent of total sales in fiscal 2023, clearly illustrating where each company's priorities lie.