The Google Pixel 9 Family and the Pursuit of Helpfulness
I have always found it helpful to view Google’s mission/ambition/product goals, etc., within the framework that Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai consistently emphasizes whenever he speaks publicly. His eloquent statement of the mission is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Within this framing, he has also stated that the ultimate end result of a Google product experience is that the customer finds it helpful in whatever task they were using the product or service for. A more helpful Google is the stated end goal and with Gen AI on the horizon, it seems Google is getting closer to fully implementing this stated goal.
While, we could talk about what this means for things like Google Workspace, the topic top of mind is the Google Pixel 9 Family. At the Made by Google Pixel 9 launch event last week, I was handed a Pixel 9 to play with for a week.
The Hardware
I’m not going to spend a ton of time on this topic but to say this Google Pixel family of designs between the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and Fold 2 are easily the best hardware-designed Android phones on the market and quite possibly ever. Yes, ever. It indeed has a very iPhone feel, but more specifically a feel that brings back the nostalgia of my absolute favorite iPhone design ever–the iPhone 4.
The hand feel of the Pixel 9 is superb. Not slippery, which has been my complaint with not only many Pixel designs but many Android designs in general. From the smooth, yet slightly tacky, brushed metal sides to the feeling of soft glass on the back, the hand feel of this product is fantastic.
There was one other feature I did not think I would like as much as I did and that was the dual secure authentication option of the under-screen fingerprint sensor, powered by Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Gen 2 ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, as well as the option to securely login via face scan. What was nice about this experience was how fast the fingerprint scan is and how quickly you get to the home screen using it. Swiping up from the bottom gets you to the home screen using Facescan and is quick as well. But there were times when using the fingerprint sensor was just more convenient and often faster making both options an ideal experience. Google Pixel also has a few limitations if you log in via face scan where you can’t use Google Wallet and some apps will require a fingerprint biometric scan to complete a log-in like to a banking app, or for a wallet app.
But all of this has confirmed in my mind that what matters most going forward is not smartphone hardware but smartphone software.
AI and Software Platforms
We are on the cusp of variations of AI experiences being built into the operating system level of all of our modern-day computing devices. This is the clear new battlefield to win the hearts and minds of consumers with new software experiences that allow them to get things done faster, and easier, and solve paint points that otherwise could not have been solved. It is not a profound statement to say that the competitive battle has moved beyond hardware (except the constant pursuit of better battery life) which is a key reason we have seen consumer hardware replacement cycles elongate. Consumers are increasingly more content with the quality and capabilities of their current hardware and don’t feel the need to upgrade any sooner than they would normally. Whenever we discuss this upgrade cycle dynamic with executives in the consumer hardware sector, we have a mantra we repeat “The biggest reason to upgrade is when the device feels old and slow.” Other than the early adopter segment, the vast majority of consumers regularly state they feel the need to upgrade when their device is old and slow and that has remained a constant.
There is optimism in the promise of AI to lead a more aggressive upgrade cycle, but we are still taking a conservative approach to this dynamic for the time being. The way I’m analyzing this AI cycle we are in is the degree to which these AI features showcased solve real pain points for consumers. While I’m going to cite a great example that is a showcase feature on the Pixel 9 family, I believe that what will move the needle here for consumers is not one showcase experience that uses AI to solve a pain point but many. That said, the Pixel 9 feature called Add Me is remarkably useful and is a clear solution to a known pain point.
If you haven’t seen it, Add Me is a feature that uses a combination of computational photography and augmented reality to allow a person to take a group photo, and then swap places with another person who takes the picture and the original person taking the photos gets added to the group photo. I used this feature numerous times and each time it felt like magic. This feature is integrated in an easy-to-use way and helps make the experience seamless and helpful although it does cause you to have to think more about positioning/framing than if someone else took the picture. But, a tradeoff that seems reasonable given the convenience of the feature. Along with a host of other features of the Pixel camera like background and unwanted object removal, it could be argued that Google Pixels have the most helpful camera on the market.
As useful/helpful as that feature is, I do not believe that feature alone will cause people to upgrade their current smartphone any sooner than they usually would. However, the inclusion of these useful and helpful features plants the seed in a consumer’s mind to more strongly consider a Pixel when it is time to upgrade.
But this emphasizes my point that one feature alone, AI or not, will not be enough to cause any kind of more aggressive upgrade cycle than normal. However, should a platform include a plethora of new AI-infused experiences that as a whole solve enough apparent point points then I can see a larger reason to be optimistic about a stronger-than-normal upgrade cycle. In essence, it will require a compelling sum-of-the-parts experience around new AI features, which all solve known pain points, to drive a stronger upgrade cycle. I believe we are far too early in this cycle for that to be a present reality and my experience with all the AI/Gemini features on this Pixel 9 only confirms my belief.
Last Thoughts
I want to mention Gemini Live even though that is not a feature that will be exclusive to Pixel hardware. The best way I can explain this experience is how it is essentially what we all hoped engaging with a smart speaker was going to become. It is a total natural language/conversational experience that resembles quite closely talking with another human, except one more intelligent than most humans. Case in point, I had an extremely engaging, and surprisingly deep conversation with Gemini (while I was cooking dinner) that was in the realm of deep and engaging conversations I’ve had with some of my most intellectual friends.
While I’m convinced shorter interactions will be more common than long conversations, it was a surprisingly good experience talking with Gemini even for an extended period, and being able to talk to it as if I was talking to another person. This experience got me thinking quite a bit more about how and what our true smart assistant and smart companion future may enable when it is truly multi-modal and much more deeply sophisticated.