Google's Pixel 9 Event Proves the Smartphone Race Has Entered a New Era

During Google's Aug. 13 event, the company flaunted how its Gemini AI assistant works on phones made by Samsung and Motorola, two companies that Google partners with but also competes against. That may not seem like a big deal. After all, Google is the purveyor of Android, so why shouldn't it feature prominent Android phones in its presentation? 

But Made by Google, as the name implies, is an event for exactly that: Devices made by Google. The search giant introduced the Made by Google branding eight years ago with the launch of its first Pixel phones as part of an effort to establish itself as not just the proprietor of Android, but also a hardware company to be taken seriously. Back then, it sought to prove that the premium phone market didn't have to be just a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung (although even today, it still largely is).

Google's decision to feature phones from Samsung and Motorola -- and emphasize its Gemini assistant -- says a lot about the company's direction, and perhaps the state of the smartphone industry. It's a sign we're in a new era of the smartphone wars that's less about outselling rival phone makers and more about establishing Gemini as the best mobile assistant -- and Android as the best platform for using that mobile assistant. 

The Android versus iPhone rivalry is a tale as old as the smartphone itself. What's different now, however, is the execution of that rivalry. Instead of racing to create the most sophisticated cameras, sleekest designs and fastest processors, the next phase of the smartphone wars is shaping up to be all about who has the superior mobile assistant. 

Read more: Why Gemini Isn't Just the Google Assistant 2.0

Why AI is such a big deal

It all started with ChatGPT, back in late 2022. OpenAI's generative-AI based chatbot exploded in popularity seemingly overnight, gaining an estimated 100 million monthly active users in just two months, according to a study from UBS reported by Reuters in February 2023. The report called it the fastest-growing consumer app in history.

Virtual assistants and chatbots are nothing new. Even modern digital helpers like the Google Assistant, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa have existed for the last decade. But ChatGPT's ability to answer complex questions in a conversational and convincing (but not always accurate) manner struck a nerve. It started conversations about whether chatbots and generative AI models -- i.e. AI that can create content in response to prompts -- could fundamentally change the way we use the internet and access information. 

Ever since then, just about all the major tech companies -- from Google to Samsung, Microsoft and more recently Apple -- have been incorporating generative AI into their most important products. Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference, was a huge showcase for how the firm is infusing more AI smarts into its most popular applications, such as Search and Gmail. Gemini and the bigger role it's playing in Android was, of course, the star of the show.

Smartphones are the places where we experience these apps and services the most. So on one hand, it's not surprising that generative AI and virtual helpers are a major part of Google's Pixel efforts. Generative AI is only expected to play a bigger role in smartphones moving forward, with the International Data Corporation predicting that shipments of gen AI phones will grow 364% year over year in 2024. 

But for an event that's usually about hardware, Google's Gemini-heavy keynote still felt like a departure from its usual approach. Google spent the beginning portion of the event showcasing how Gemini can walk you through math problems and the way Gemini Live (the more conversational paid version) can even understand you when you change your line of thought. The first half of the presentation almost felt like Google I/O part two rather than a traditional product launch event.

Google's fresh crop of phones, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL and 9 Pro Fold, are also loaded with new AI tools for changing the content of photos based on prompts, generating images and searching for bits of information in screenshots by typing a query the way you would in a search engine. In other words, it's the AI software that's truly the star of the show with these new phones. 

Perhaps that's the result of Google's new direction. The company recently combined its hardware and software consumer product divisions including Pixel, Android, Chrome and more under one umbrella called Platforms and Devices, as The Verge reported in April. 

Google and Samsung are teaming up on Android's next phase 

Google and Samsung aren't wasting any time collaborating on what the next stage of the smartphone should look like. While they each have their own separate competing Pixel and Galaxy phones with their own AI features, they've been seemingly working more closely than ever on new features and products. 

Rick Osterloh, who leads Google's Platform and Devices team, even made an appearance at Samsung's most recent Unpacked event in Paris to talk about how the two companies are working together. Some of Samsung's Galaxy AI features -- i.e. the suite of AI-powered software tools for its Galaxy phones -- are powered by Google's models. And Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 can run Google's Gemini helper in split view. 

Google and Samsung have been partners for years, but their relationship has seemingly deepend recently. The two companies worked together on Google's current Wear OS software for smartwatches, which it reintroduced in 2021. Now, it sounds like they're doing the same for mixed reality. That's a departure from the early 2010s, when Samsung was pushing its own Tizen software. 

The partnership is a smart one. You can't have Android without Google, but Samsung is the top smartphone maker when it comes to global shipments, according to the IDC. So it makes sense that they would team up on whatever the next evolution of the smartphone looks like -- especially to take on competitors like Apple and OpenAI, which partners with both Microsoft and Apple. 

These changes also come at a time when new smartphones are lacking the wow-factor they had a decade ago. You could argue that today's phones come with relatively minor year-over-year upgrades, and Verizon's CEO even told CNBC that subscribers are now holding onto their phones for three years. With foldable phones remaining a niche and expensive option, companies like Google are looking to AI to get people excited about new phones again. And of course, to sell more devices. 

For Google, Gemini is clearly going to be a big part of that mission.