Google recently closed a deal with HTC, a Taiwan-based electronics company, acquiring 2,000 smartphone specialists in the process, according to a Tuesday announcement.
“These new colleagues bring decades of experience achieving a series of ‘firsts’ particularly in the smartphone industry—including bringing to market the first 3G smartphone in 2005, the first touch-centric phone in 2007, and the first all-metal unibody phone in 2013,” said Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware. “This is also the same team we’ve been working closely with on the development of the Pixel and Pixel 2.”
Now that it has more designers and engineers officially on board, Google can get more aggressive with its push into the smartphone market.
The agreement with HTC could mean that Google wants to delve even deeper into the development of computer chips needed for advanced mobile devices — an area Apple has been investing in for quite some time.
Compared to competitors in the smartphone sphere (as in hardware, and not software, like it’s proprietary Android operating system), Google is for the most part just starting to create a name for itself.
Google Pixel has 0.3 percent market share in the U.S., according to Counterpoint Research, and sold 1.5 million phones in 2017 in general, which was up by 1 million the year prior, but was still well below the estimated 300 million shipped smartphones by Samsung.
Google now seems even more determined to increase that number further, while also maintaining its market power with Android, which is being used by South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Huawei Technologies more and more, according to Bloomberg.
“As our hardware business enters its third year, we remain committed to building and investing for the long run,” said Osterloh. “Today, we start digging in with our new teammates, guided by the mission to create radically helpful experiences for people around the world, by combining the best of Google’s AI, software and hardware.”
Google did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, specifically if it’s an attempt to directly topple Apple.
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