Google may have slowly shifted attention off its Nexus brand of phones and launched the Pixel brand as a replacement in October 2016 much to the consternation of Android purists. But people quickly warmed up to the Pixel and Pixel XL.
Both handsets are getting rave reviews and performing really well in Verizon stores. Verizon has exclusive rights to the Pixel, which means that other U.S. carriers are currently unable to sell it to their customers.
Google Pixel Out Of Stock: Shipping To Resume In March
Verizon has spent $25 million marketing the "Phones made by Google," and it appears to have worked since there is demand for the Pixel phones even at the tail end of the consumer holiday shopping.
The phones are currently out of stock in Verizon stores, and shipment will resume sometime in March as stores replenish their stock. The lack of supply is a testament to the growing popularity of the brand despite its exclusivity to Verizon, something Google was not able to anticipate.
After conducting research on 50 Verizon stores, Wave7 Research found that the Pixel accounted for 12.3 percent of the Verizon stores' smartphone sales during the first few weeks of December. By the end of the month, Pixel comprised 9.5 percent of the stores' total smartphone sales.
Google Pixel And Pixel XL Features
There is not a lot of difference between Google's two premium smartphones. Both have similar hardware structure; the only differences are the size, screen resolution, and battery life.
The Pixel has a 5-inch, 1080p display, a 2,770 mAh battery, and a $649 price tag, while the Pixel XL sports a 5.5-inch QHD screen and a 3,450 mAh battery, which can be purchased for $769.
Both phones run on a Snapdragon 821 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 32 / 128 GB of storage, and a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen protector.
The current supply bottleneck means that Google has finally achieved what it failed to do with its Nexus line, which is to appeal to more mainstream smartphone users.
Aside from Verizon's marketing campaign, Samsung's fiasco over the Galaxy Note 7 and Apple's less-than-stellar performance with the iPhone 7 have made people weary of overhyped phones. For them, the Pixel was refreshing, and it served as a breath of fresh air.
Google has not yet released the numbers on how its Pixel phones are currently performing, but it should do so once Alphabet, its parent company, provides a fiscal statement on Jan. 26.
