Google has high hopes for Pixel 6 series & aims to manufacture 7 million of them

Google is set to reveal its Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro today and it seems that the California-based company has a lot riding on the flagship phones.

A report by Nikkei Asia shows that Google has asked its suppliers to manufacture over 7 million Pixel 6 series smartphones. This has been claimed to be around double the 3.7 million sales figure from last year.

The goal is despite Google planning on selling the exact number of devices compared to last year – the 2020 portfolio included the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, and Pixel 5 while 2021’s lineup is comprised of the Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro.

And as if the 7 million figure isn’t big enough already, Nikkei’s sources claim that Google is planning on producing 5 million Pixel 5a devices as well, making a total of a whopping 12 million. Sure, the figure is nowhere near Samsung’s goal of producing 20 million Galaxy S22 series smartphones, but it is still a start and an indicator for what’s to come.

However, the 5 million Pixel 5a figure is a little ambiguous. This is because the device has only been launched in the United States and Japan, due to which it is unclear if the request to the suppliers is only for the two countries or if Google plans on selling the phone in more countries.

Regardless, if Google’s hopes come to fruition, it is likely that the company will be stealing the market share from companies like Apple and Samsung, at least in the US. The Pixel 6 models are after all poised to get four years of OS updates and five years of security patches, positioning them right above Samsung and under Apple in terms of software support.

Google is apparently also working on a new Chromebook codenamed Halvor, which would be the successor to the Pixelbook Go and is said to arrive sometime in 2021.