Google Does It Again (Premium)

Two months ago, I explained why I believe that Google needs the Pixel 4a, its second-generation low-end handset, to be a hit: The Pixel series is a failure overall, and the firm has now sold fewer of its latest flagship phones year-over-year for two generations in a row.

And there’s every indication that the Pixel 4a would be a hit ... if Google would only release it. With one major exception, the lack of a bigger XL model, the Pixel 4a looks to be a worthy successor to the Pixel 3a family, which I still really enjoy using. And it would be a much better deal than the iPhone SE, and even more so given its most recently rumored starting price of just $350.

But there’s a lot of “woulds” in there. And that’s because the Pixel 4a was originally supposed to launch in May at Google’s long-canceled I/O 2020 conference but was delayed to June. And then to July. And then to August. And now, inexplicably, to … October.

October?

Yes. According to the suddenly very accurate leaker John Prosser, Google still plans to announce the Pixel 4a in July. But it won’t actually ship the handset to customers until October. Prosser also claims that one of the expected Pixel 4a colors, Barely Blue, has been canceled and that the device will only arrive in Black.

If true, this means that Google will ship the Pixel 4a at the same time it ships its new flagships, the Pixel 5 family. Which technically won’t be flagships because Google can’t seem to convince anyone to pay $1000 for their phones, so they’ll be mid-market devices instead. (And will be correspondingly less expensive than before.)

This raises a lot of questions. But the most pertinent, at least to me, is this: Why on earth would Google give the iPhone SE that much time, uncontested, to establish itself as the ~$400 handset to beat? I’ve already made the case that there are better phones to be had in that price range, but the Pixel 4a would have been the top choice. You know, if it actually shipped.

But maybe what we really need to be questioning is whether Google has any idea whatsoever how to compete in the smartphone market. This is getting embarrassing.

And it’s personal, too. For the most part, I’ve been more pained by various Microsoft defeats---like Media Center, Zune, Windows Phone, and Microsoft Band---than by those from other big tech firms. But that condition I’ve so often described---where people tend to spend much more time on their phones than they do any other computing device---applies to me too. And when you combine that with another condition I’ve also often described, in which photography is my number one consideration when choosing a smartphone, this one hits hard.

See, I love the Pixel lineup as much as one can love any device, and the key to that has always been the photography. But Pixel’s many defeats weigh heavy on this relationship. Other smartphone makers, including Apple, Huawei, and Samsung, have caught up to Pixel and ...