Running head: GOOGLE SHOULD NOT CONTINUE 1

Google Should not Continue Making Phones

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Google Should not Continue Making Phones

Google's intent to venture into the smartphone hardware market became

apparent upon announcing its second generation of first-party pixel phones. The

products offer innovative, unique user features, such as a powerful camera, high

resolution, and exclusive access to Google Assistant. Moreover, the second-

generation batch enabled the company to compete in Amazon's low-end line-up more

effectively and target segments of Apple's robust market locally and overseas. The

effort was aided partly by an approach that downplays hardware's role to enable

marketing to its strengths in software innovation features, such as Pixelbuds and

artificial intelligence (AI)(Lowenstein, 2017). Nonetheless, Google's approach to

marketing phones suggests that long-term production under current conditions is

unsustainable. Google's plan for its phones suggests fundamental inadequacies in the

four Ps of marketing, thus severely undermining chances of significant success in the

smartphone ecosystem.

Google's pricing strategy for phones suggests that the company cannot

compete sustainably with their fiercest rival, Apple. While initial phone processes

matched Apple's iPhone, the second-generation variants included a $200 price

difference, despite marketing them as having dismal feature differences (Dawson,

2017). The additional costs for Google Pixel 2XL, in a market where a $100 variance

creates substantial material difference, is a marketing mishap that could prove fatal

for Google hardware products' performance in the smartphone ecosystem. The higher

prices for non-consequential feature differences that make Pixel considerably costlier

than Apple iPhone 8 plus is an odd marketing decision that depicts that Google may

not be adequately prepared to compete with market leaders.

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Google's promotion strategies for Pixel 2XL suggest that the tech firm is not

adequately prepared for competition in the smartphone hardware market. According

to Dawson (2017), its pricing strategy indicates that the company is more intent on

rivaling Apple than innovating to offer consumers a more significant value

proposition. A robust body of evidence suggests that the two firms boast a fairly loyal

user ecosystem with a low likelihood of switching from Android to iOS and vice

versa. The market structure acknowledges that Pixels are for Google-centric

consumers and iPhones for people with a preference for Apple products. Nonetheless,

the former apportions more focus targeting their fiercest rival, Apple, with sarcastic

marketing digs rather than promote their products' unique features to its already

established consumer ecosystem. Above all, Google's promotion approach suggests

that the company is not primed for success in the hardware market just yet.

Google's inferior people and placement strategy signals cannot guarantee

success in the smartphone market. The launch and promotion of its first- and second-

generation products vastly underestimated individuals and teams' roles in product

marketing (Dawson, 2017). The company's dismal investment in third-party retail

presence effectively undermines its market outreach locally ad in overseas markets.

Overreliance on its exclusive relationship with Verizon limits itself to one carrier.

Google's smartphone penetration is significantly hampered by a poor people

placement strategy and implies its unpreparedness to compete for the hardware

segment market.

Google is fundamentally unprepared to compete for an advantage in the

smartphone market ecosystem. A keen review of the company's approach to the four

P's of marketing suggests a lack of well-crafted strategy and investment in ineffective

strategies without intent to improve. Google's failure to design an effective pricing

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strategy, inadequate focus on consumer preferences and inferior people, and

placement strategy imply that the company should not continue to make phones.
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References

Dawson, J. (2017, October 5). Google is clearly serious about hardware but not about

selling phones. Techopinions. Retrieved from https://techpinions.com/google-

is-clearly-serious-about-hardware-but-not-about-selling-phones/51272

Lowenstein, M. (2017, October 6). Why is Google making phones, anyway?

Techopinions. Retrieved from https://techpinions.com/why-is-google-making-

phones-anyway/51279.