Huawei Executive Confirms Why It Didn't Want To Build Google's Pixel, Pixel XL

Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL are undoubtedly the two most sought after Android smartphones in the market today. Everyone thinks that Google built its new phones on its own, but it actually had help from HTC. However, customers won’t see any HTC branding on the new Pixel phones, and this is exactly the reason why Huawei passed up the chance to build it for Google.

The Nexus 6P, which was built by Huawei in collaboration with Google, saw a lot of success in 2015. The Nexus 6P gained a lot of praise and everyone believed that Huawei would surely be responsible for building the new Nexus device for 2016. That never happened and Nexus fans got the Pixel and Pixel XL which are built by HTC.

The main reason why Huawei didn’t want to build the Pixel phones is because how Google wanted to market the devices. The Pixel and Pixel XL are being sold as phones made by Google with the manufacturer’s branding, HTC, nowhere to be found anywhere on the devices.

Huawei wanted to strengthen its brand presence in the United States and not simply be seen as a contract phone maker, Huawei’s vice president of Consumer Business Group Colin Giles confirmed to the German site WinFuture. If Huawei decided to make the Pixel phones, most consumers wouldn’t even know that the Chinese phone maker had anything to do with the device.

The Nexus 6P would have been Huawei and Google’s first step in a multi-year smartphone deal, but the Pixel and Pixel XL ended that partnership between the two. However, Google and Huawei are still working on something together, but it's not a smartphone.

Huawei is currently rumored to be working on a new 7-inch tablet for Google. The tablet is said to come with a next-generation operating system based on Android called Andromeda, according to Android Police. Since Google is concentrating on its own product portfolio (Pixel, Home, etc.), the 7-inch Huawei tablet could still be far from being announced.