Negotiations between the Chinese telecom giant and Google eventually broke down
Today, Google announced the launch of its own brand of phones–the Pixel series. And unlike its Nexus series, which it co-developed with other smartphone manufacturers, Google will have free rein over the hardware and software specifications of Pixel.
The only component that will be outsourced is the manufacturing, which will be handled by Taiwanese electronic giant HTC.
But did you know that Huawei was originally set to be Google’s manufacturer of choice for Pixel? Negotiations were carried out between the Chinese telecom giant and Google, but ultimately, nothing materialised.
So what was the cause of the soured talks?
According to a report by Android Police, cracks in the relationship appeared back when the two companies were planning to release the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.
In a nutshell, Google allegedly promised that Huawei that the Nexus 5x and 6P would be sold through the four major US carriers, giving the Chinese company a huge window of opportunity to crack into the US market.
Large ‘multi-hundred-million dollar’ advertisement campaigns were also planned.
But in the end, talks broke down, and Google sold the Nexus line initially as a Google Store exclusive, before releasing the smartphones on major e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Best Buy and B&H.
Huawei, on the other hand, sold the device on its own website.
When it came to the Pixel phones, Google once again reached out to Huawei for partnership. This time, Google apparently wanted Huawei to be just a manufacturing partner–meaning no Huawei branding will be displayed (also, there apparently were supposed to be three versions and not the just two Pixel and Pixel XL that were announced).
Richard Yu, the global CEO of Huawei, allegedly did not take kindly to this proposal and promptly ceased negotiations. This gave way for Google to cosy up to HTC, and the rest is history.
Want another sign of the falling out? Google has pulled both the Nexus 5X and 6P from its official store.
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Image Credit: Google
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