Google plans to assemble 1 million Pixel phones in India: Report

Google is planning to shift the assembly of its Pixel smartphones from China to India and has asked manufacturers here to submit bids, according to a report on Monday (September 12).

Google wants to move some of its most important consumer electronics production outside China amid the country’s Covid-19 lockdowns, which have disrupted the manufacturing and supply chains of many foreign brands, and as geopolitical tensions with the US rise, a report on The Information said.

To that end, Google has solicited bids from manufacturers in India to make between 500,000 and 1 million of the company’s Pixel smartphones, equivalent to 10% to 20% of the estimated annual production for the device, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. In recent years Google has produced the device entirely in China, it added.

Also read: Apple iPhone 14 to be made in India from November: Report

This is not the first time, that reports have emerged of Google making Pixel smartphones in India. Last year, an Economic Times report quoted a senior Google official about the move.

“Google doubled inventory for Pixel for India last year and this year the intention is to further increase the focus and get (a) larger share from global inventory for the India market,” a senior company executive was quoted as saying in the report in March 2021.

Earlier this month, a New York Times report said Google was looking at manufacturing its Pixel 7 device in Vietnam, moving the production from Foxconn plants in China.

Last month, a report said Apple is planning to manufacture its iPhone 14 in India from November.

“Apple Inc. plans to begin manufacturing the iPhone 14 in India about two months after the product’s initial release out of China, narrowing the gap between the two countries but not closing it completely as some had anticipated,” a Bloomberg report said.

The company has been working with suppliers to ramp up manufacturing in India and shorten the lag in production of the new iPhone from the typical six to nine months for previous launches, according to people familiar with the matter, it added.