Made by Google event will be held in New York City on Tuesday, October 15.

“At Google’s launch event on Oct. 15, Google needs to do more than confirm rumors of the Pixel 4 and its list of flagship phone innovations. Keeping the Pixel as a lighthouse Android smartphone to challenge and inspire Android OEM partners won’t be enough. Google needs to update their Nest line of devices. We expect to see updates to the Mini smart speaker, at a minimum, plus new Google Wi-Fi units with a smart speaker included. Beyond that, they should update the Google Buds, the Pixelbook laptop, and the Nest Hello digital doorbell. Google’s devices team needs keep up with competition from Amazon, whose Echo and Ring products lines now cover a wide swath of the smart home. And Microsoft’s new Surface line of products has put Google on notice that Microsoft is back in the smartphone race (using Android!) and doubling down on thought leadership for laptops and tablets.”

Frank Gillett, Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving CIO Professionals

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“While Pixel smartphones demonstrate Google’s willingness to more tightly integrate hardware and software à la Apple, they have not been a massive sales success story for now. For the new Pixel 4 smartphones to be successful, Google will have to do two things: 1) to accelerate retail execution and partnerships with telcos and 2) to demonstrate that tighter integration with Android 10 delivers a better experience than the new iPhone 11, Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note 10 devices. I’d expect Google to also try to differentiate by embedding the latest version of the Google Assistant, enabling new use cases and interfaces with apps. It remains to be seen if Google manages to launch the new Google Assistant in multiple languages beyond English. Beyond tighter voice integration, Google may also support touchless hand gestures and advanced face unlock. Given the slow 5G start and the limited consumer benefits, Google may wait 2020 for a 5G edition. To keep up with competition with Amazon, I’d expect Google to launch several new smart home speakers and devices and to pivot all of them under the Nest brand umbrella. Lastly, Google should update the Google Buds, focusing on a more affordable price and improving the basic headphone experience with wireless, and insisting less on the niche real-time translation features.”

Thomas Husson, Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving CMO Professionals