Pixel boss says 'very few' Pixel users come from Samsung phones

Google Pixel phones They don’t rank in the top five in terms of global market share, but they certainly have some vocal fans. Where are these Pixel owners coming from? Well, a Google executive says they’re not exactly from Samsung.

Rick Osterloh, Google's senior vice president, said Stratecherie in an interview (spotted via 9to5Google) that “very few” Pixel owners come from Samsung devices. That's a particularly interesting claim, given that Samsung is the top smartphone brand worldwide, so it would be a fair assumption that many Pixel owners came from Galaxy phones.

The Pixel boss gave a follow-up response on where Pixel owners stand now:

They come from a lot of people, some of whom have left the market and also from Apple, but ultimately we think we're trying to grow Android share in general and that's my main goal: trying to improve Android's competitiveness, improve our innovation, improve the problems that we can solve for users at all levels. But we've certainly had problems in the premium space that we want to try to address.

For what it’s worth, Pixel phones have made big strides in Japan, largely because local brands have struggled. Local manufacturer Kyocera even announced plans to exit the consumer phone market a little over a year ago . Google’s rise in the US in recent years has also coincided in part with LG’s exit from the smartphone market.

Still, it's not surprising to hear that some Pixel owners have switched from iPhonesGoogle has long been trying to entice iPhone users with marketing and attractive trade-in promotions.

It’s also interesting that Osterloh acknowledged “issues in the premium space.” He didn’t elaborate on those issues, but the company’s phones have long been criticized for disappointing overall performance compared to rival devices and unreliable connectivity. Google has attempted to address the latter with a new modem. The company is also expected to switch chip makers from Samsung to TSMC in 2025, which could lead to better performance and longer battery life.