Google Pixel: "Big" in Japan?

On Wednesday, Alphabet will hold its annual “Made by Google” event to unveil its new line-up of Pixel devices. As always, the company’s latest flagship smartphones, will take center stage, with the Pixel 11 line expected to feature a new Tensor chip, better cameras and a new notification LED called HiLight. Having worked with various hardware makers before, Google debuted the “made by Google” Pixel smartphones in 2016. But despite good reviews and attractive price points, the company never really cracked the smartphone market, selling just a fraction of the devices market leaders Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi move year after year.

According to Statista Consumer Insights, Google remains a fringe player in the smartphone market to this day, with a single-digit share of smartphone users calling a Pixel device their main phone in most major markets. As our chart shows, Google phones are most popular in Japan and Canada, where they're used by 10 and 7 percent of smartphone users, respectively.

Thankfully for Alphabet's shareholders, the company doesn't rely on smartphone sales the way that Apple does. In the second quarter of 2026, the operating segment that includes all of Google's hardware products as well as Google Play, YouTube subscriptions and other products and services accounted for just 11 percent of Alphabet's total revenue, while advertising accounted for almost 70 percent. At Apple, the iPhone alone accounted for 50 percent of total sales in Q3 of fiscal 2026, clearly illustrating where each company's priorities lie.