Google To Manufacture Smartphones In India, Starting With Pixel 8; Read Full Plan Here

New Delhi: Calling India a major market for tech industry, global tech giant Google on Thursday announced that it will be manufacture its flagship Pixel phones in India and added that it will start manufacturing the Pixel 8 in India and the devices will roll out in 2024. This is being done as a part of the Make in India initiative.

“India is a priority market for Pixel,” said Google’s Rick Osterloh, Head of Devices & Services at the #GoogleForIndia event in New Delhi.

“We shared plans at GoogleForIndia to manufacture Pixel smartphones locally and expect the first devices to roll out in 2024. We’re committed to being a trusted partner in India’s digital growth- appreciate the support for Make In India,” Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google and Alphabet, said in an X post.

With this latest move, Google now follows in the footsteps of other prominent global tech companies like Apple to manufacture phones in India. Cupertino-based Apple has leveraged this program to expand its network of suppliers in India and increased iPhone production to over $7 billion during the fiscal year ending in March 2023.

Prior to that, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. manufactures its Galaxy handsets in India while Chinese Android vendors including Xiaomi have set up partnerships with local assemblers.

During the event, Google also announced Google Maps’ partnership with ONDC which will soon allow users to book metro tickets via the Google Maps app. Other announcements included YouTube’s new India-first features, the takedown of harmful content from the company’s platforms, safety features in Google Pay and Play Store and more. Here’s a deeper look at everything that was announced at the event today.

Earlier, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had held talks with Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai at the company’s Mountain View, California headquarters in May 2023. The talks focused on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to promote local manufacturing and India’s government-supported push for technological advancements.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, India is expected to export about 22 per cent of its total assembled mobile phones in 2023. With ‘Make in India’ initiative, India saw mobile phones exports worth $5.5 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) in the April-August period in the ongoing fiscal year (FY24), government and industry data showed recently.