Google has never sold a lot of Pixel smartphones, but it expects the Pixel 6 series to catapult sales to record levels in 2022.

According to Nikkei Asia, Google now expects the Pixel 6 lineup to sell better than before and it has asked its suppliers to prepare for 50 percent more production capacity. Apparently, Google’s Pixel sales fell off a cliff in 2020 thanks (apparently) to the COVID-19 pandemic—I’d argue it was a lackluster product lineup—with only 3.7 million units sold. But the firm had sold 7 million units the previous year, and it now thinks it can meet or even surpass that latter number in 2022.

Nikkei Asia also says that Google has told suppliers that it sees a potential for massive growth opportunities globally because it is the only U.S. smartphone maker building Android smartphones. I’m not sure why that is of interest to international customers, but it’s fair to point out that Google, like Apple, is making massive investments in its own smartphone chipsets, and that, if successful, that could be a major differentiator and attractive to customers.

The Nikkei Asia report also notes that Google has sold fewer than 500,000 Pixel-branded Chromebooks and tablets each year, dating back to 2017. But with Chromebook sales doubling in 2020, the hope is that Google’s in-house hardware can ride that wave too.

Tagged with Google Pixel, Pixel 6