It is pretty much-known fact that Google has launched a new batch of hardware which looks a beginning of a coherent ecosystem of products. "This is a coming-out party for us, without a doubt," Osterloh says (chief of the company's new hardware division).
Google has a clear vision to sell its products undoubtedly at market with a large number instead of any experiments and references. Although that’s new for Google and it puts Google in a different category of competition - even both with adversaries like Apple and Microsoft and with its own manufacturing partners those are in the market.
Even though, Google is making its own hardware, Google is not completely abandoning on its partners. Google will still be sharing software and cloud intelligence, which it has developed, with companies like Samsung and LG that can make compatible phones, speakers, and routers.
But this time, Google isn’t stepping out of the sales fray like it has never before. It will be competing with those partners directly. "We’re no longer going to be shy about what we think is the right answer for us," Chandra says, Google’s VP of Product Management. "What we are going to do is give the OEM ecosystem a chance to compete, meaning it’s a fair playing field."
"OUR FOCUS IS ABSOLUTELY ON TRYING TO DRIVE PEOPLE INTO THE ANDROID ECOSYSTEM."
Seriously, that kind of direct competition between a software maker and hardware companies seemed like a recipe for conflict.
But it doesn’t seem to have hurt Microsoft much in its Surface line and Google doesn’t seem too worried that its partners will be unhappy competing with Google.
Osterley, chief of the company's new hardware division, says "It certainly might happen as a by product, but our focus is absolutely on trying to drive people into the Android ecosystem, especially at that premium tier."
Google is making the first version of the hardware itself and vertically integrating software to create the best possible experience. Its products are sitting at the high end of the market, eventually distributing its software downstream to other manufacturers.
Now the question arises that Will it work? The only way to figure it out seems to be by trying.
Chandra says that Google CEO Sundar Pichai has challenged all the teams: "Let’s go prove this, can we go prove that this should be the best that we, as a company, are going to make."
