Apple Encore?

Can Google do in India what its rival Apple has done, and make the cour for mobile phone assembly?

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

Steve Jobs, according to his biography by Walter Isaacson, once I vowed to launch a thermonuclear war" on Google because he thought the latter's mobile platform, Android, was a "stolen product".

Before Android, they worked closely together. Eric Schmidt, who served as Google's Chairman, served on Apple Inc's board. In a turn of events, he left the board because of the conflict between the iPhone and Android.

This trend of switching between friendship and enmity has continued over the years; most recently, Bloomberg reported, quoting unnamed sources, that Apple was in talks to build Google's Gemini artificial intelligence into iPhones.

It was not a huge surprise, therefore, that with Apple getting accolades for converting India into a hub of iPhone assembly for Indian as well as global markets, Google could be looking to replicate that for its own phones.

Last week, Google took its first tentative step in that direction by finalising its mobile device assembly partners in the country. As stated publicly, it will roll out "make in India" Google Pixel phones sometime this year.

Though the Mountain View, California-based search and technology giant maintains a stoic silence, people in the know say it has tied up with two companies, Dixon Technologies and Bharat FIH (a Foxconn company), to assemble its phones, including the flagship, Pixel 8.

Yawning gap

Truth be told, Google is a bit player in the global as well as Indian mobile phones market.