Google has told suppliers to start making its Pixel smartphones in India by the next quarter at the earliest, underlining the American search engine giant’s determination to further diversify its supply chain away from China and capture the booming Indian smartphone market, sources said.
The supply chain strategy is part of Google’s ambitious target of shipping more than 10 million Pixel phones this year, after shipping around 10 million units for the first time in 2023 amid a global economic slowdown, said one person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Google will first prepare the production line for its high-end Pixel 8 Pro in the southern part of India in the coming weeks, then begin turning out phones in the April-June quarter, according to multiple sources familiar with the plan. This will be followed by production of the Pixel 8 in the north of the country around the middle of this year, they said.
There are emerging smartphone manufacturing hubs in both of these parts of the country, thanks to companies like Apple, Samsung, Oppo and Xiaomi bringing several assembly and component suppliers into India in recent years.
While Google’s India Pixel production will begin with a small volume, the move marks a crucial shift in the supply chain strategy for the company.
“Google is not the only tech company that started to look for a ‘China+2’ strategy. That means diversifying away from China into another place is not enough, but suppliers should have multiple non-China options for better supply chain resilience,” one of the sources said.
The company announced last year that its first made-in-India Pixel phones will be available this year, joining Apple and Samsung in tapping the massive and growing Indian market at a time when the overall smartphone industry is slowing.
“Google reached a milestone last year for its Pixel phones and it has set an ambitious goal of [shipping] another 10 million units in 2024,”sources added”.
Google’s phone manufacturing plans also come as the Indian government makes an aggressive push to turn the country into a tech manufacturing powerhouse by offering incentives and weighing tighter import restrictions to attract companies to build local supply chains for mobile devices.
Also read: AC approves 5 Spl Courts for trials under NDPS Act
