Make in India: Google to manufacture Pixel smartphones in the country

(L-R) Ana Corrales, Google COO of Consumer Hardware; Rick Osterloh, SVP, Devices and Services, Google; Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronic and Information Technology, Communications & Railways, Government of India; Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India and Nanda Ramachandran, VP, Pixel Business, Google.

Google on October 19 announced plans to make its Pixel smartphones in India, giving a big boost to the country's ambitions of becoming a global manufacturing hub.

Google's senior vice president of devices and services Rick Osterloh made the announcement at the company's annual flagship event 'Google for India' in the presence of Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Osterloh said they plan to start local manufacturing with Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which were unveiled about a fortnight ago, with the first devices expected to roll out in 2024. The company will be working with domestic and international manufacturers to produce these smartphones, he said without disclosing any specific names.

"We look forward to sharing more details in the coming months, and can’t wait to bring the magic of Pixel smartphones to more people across the nation," Osterloh said.

This move comes weeks after Google partnered with personal computer (PC) maker HP to manufacture Chromebooks in India, in order to cater to the demand for affordable PCs in India primarily from the education sector.

The production of these Chromebooks were started by HP from October 2, 2023 at the Flex Facility near Chennai, where the device maker has been producing a range of laptops and desktops since August 2020.

"It's great to see Google join the “Make in India” initiative and further strengthen India’s growth story with their plans to locally manufacture Pixel smartphones in the country" said Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The union minister further said they have asked Google to start manufacturing Tensor chips for Pixel phones in an Indian fab within the next three years. "We have asked them to bring their supply chain partners to India," he said.

India has set an ambitious goal to produce $300 billion in electronics products by 2025-26, offering generous incentives through its production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to woo device makers seeking to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China.

Over the past year, Google rival Apple has been aggressively ramping up local production of its flagship iPhone devices in India. The Cupertino tech giant reportedly plans to increase production in India to over $40 billion in the next 4-5 years, after crossing the $7 billion production mark in the last fiscal.

India's booming premium market

Google's move to make Pixel smartphones in India also comes at a time when Indian customers are buying more premium products across various product categories.

The tech giant said that India is a priority market for Pixel smartphones, and it has witnessed significant momentum for the smartphone lineup in the country over the past few years.

"When we set out with our hardware business, we committed to building and investing for the long run. Our plan to manufacture in India is an early step in the long journey of expanding our device production capacity and helping meet the country’s growing demand for Pixel smartphones" Osterloh said.

Google said that it now has 28 service centers in 27 cities across India in partnership with F1 Info Solutions, and the company will continue to expand coverage to more locations and cities in the months ahead.