Report: Google Pixel 8 to Begin Manufacturing in India in Q2 2024
Google plans to start manufacturing Pixel smartphones in India and has asked suppliers to start production in the next quarter or the second quarter at the earliest, media reports said on Thursday.
Citing sources in Nikkei Asia, this supply chain strategy is part of Google’s ambitious goal to ship more than 10 million Pixel phones this year, after first shipping around 10 million units in 2023 amid a global economic downturn.
The move underscores the tech giant’s determination to further diversify its supply chain away from China and capture the growing Indian smartphone market.
Initially, the company will focus on manufacturing the high-end Pixel 8 Pro in the southern part of India, with production likely to begin in the April-June quarter. After that, Pixel 8 production will start in the northern part of the country in the middle of this year, the report mentions.
In October last year, Google announced plans to manufacture Pixel smartphones in India, with the first Pixel 8 model set to hit the market in 2024.
According to data from IDC, India’s smartphone market grew 1 percent to 146 million devices in 2023, and 11 percent in the second half of the year compared to the previous year.
