Rough list of Google Hardware lines:
- Pixel (smartphones, earbuds, Chromebooks, tablets, smartwatches).
- Google Tensor SoC (semiconductors) and Google TPU hardware
- Google Nest / Home (home IoT and smart speakers)
Let’s assume Android is spun of on its own and that Google Cloud Platform is out of scope for the discussion.
IMO Pixel would find it hard to survive due to their extremely limited geographic distribution compared to Samsung, Apple and many Chinese smartphone OEMs.
Their TPU and semiconductor business may be in a better position, but at least with Tensor SoC, the team has never worked with 3rd party clients and this is a whole different ball game from an internal only approach.
No idea about their IoT business. I don’t use commercial IoT solutions (Raspberry Pi all the way).
Their TPU and semiconductor business may be in a better position, but at least with Tensor SoC, the team has never worked with 3rd party clients and this is a while different ball game from an internal only approach.
well they could at least continue to sell to Google
Pixel: Absolutely not
Pixel devices are a vessel for distributing google software services. Hardware-wise they’re pretty mediocre. Google is not making a profit from the pixel hardware devices themselves but instead from the added software upsell.
Google TPU: Yes!
Google Nest: I think yes, Nest used to be its own thing without Google
For Google IoT devices specifically, I own a Google nest thermostat, doorbell camera plus some other Google products over the years. I can honestly say they might have a better chance by themselves than as part of Google. I actively avoid them now.
They’ve become very laggy, cloud dependent (I suppose that one is on me) and in some cases unsupported as they age. Seeing the direction of things with their app store being actively hostile toward individual developers solidifies that they are a declining company from the perspective of enthusiasts.
