Submission + - Google plans to stop making Pixel products in China in 2027 (archive.is)
An anonymous reader writes: The news broke only after Google quietly passed word to suppliers. The company has made no public announcement and ignored a request for comment.
Vietnam first got a piece of Pixel production in 2019, but the real engineering — how new models get designed for mass production, down to the testing gear and tooling — stayed in China. The Pixel 11 was the first time Google moved all of that work to Vietnam, too. That was the hard part.
Pulling that off proved the concept. Google did not need to build from scratch, either; Samsung's massive investment in Vietnam had already drawn component suppliers to the country, and if Vietnam can handle a flagship smartphone, earbuds and watches are no problem.
Google also has far less to lose in China than Apple does. Pixel phones aren't sold there, so Beijing can't threaten Google's customer base the way it can Apple's. Apple is tangled up with Chinese consumers and Chinese factories at the same time; Google can cut the manufacturing cord without sacrificing a single sale.
China still accounts for a significant share of Pixel production today. Once those lines are gone, Beijing loses whatever leverage it currently holds over Google's hardware. That's not a small thing; the ability to slow, disrupt, or pressure a company through its own factories is a tool authoritarian governments have used before.
Vietnam first got a piece of Pixel production in 2019, but the real engineering — how new models get designed for mass production, down to the testing gear and tooling — stayed in China. The Pixel 11 was the first time Google moved all of that work to Vietnam, too. That was the hard part.
Pulling that off proved the concept. Google did not need to build from scratch, either; Samsung's massive investment in Vietnam had already drawn component suppliers to the country, and if Vietnam can handle a flagship smartphone, earbuds and watches are no problem.
Google also has far less to lose in China than Apple does. Pixel phones aren't sold there, so Beijing can't threaten Google's customer base the way it can Apple's. Apple is tangled up with Chinese consumers and Chinese factories at the same time; Google can cut the manufacturing cord without sacrificing a single sale.
China still accounts for a significant share of Pixel production today. Once those lines are gone, Beijing loses whatever leverage it currently holds over Google's hardware. That's not a small thing; the ability to slow, disrupt, or pressure a company through its own factories is a tool authoritarian governments have used before.
