Google launched its first Pixel phones way back in 2016, and we’re coming up on the launch of the company’s eighth generation of devices, the Pixel 8 series, later this year. Although overall sales of the Pixel lineup are a fraction of what Samsung manages in a single year, I’m not really worried that Google will kill off its Pixel smartphone business, a practice they have a tendency to do.
That’s because Pixel phones serve as a reference platform for Android, which is one of Google’s core businesses because of how much money it generates through the Play ecosystem. Thanks to its ties to Google, Pixel enjoys a level of security and first-class support that other Android hardware vendors dream of, but these ties also restrain what Pixel can do.
