If you paid full price for a Google Pixel 8 then please, for your sanity, don’t read on. Google has slashed prices for its devices repeatedly since they launched last October and it doesn’t look like that strategy is ending any time soon.
By my count, Google has heavily discounted the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro in December, January, February, March and April. We’re now in May and both the U.K. and U.S. Google stores are running yet another sale. These aren’t small discounts either, most have knocked $150 and $200 off the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro respectively.
The company has also sent out high-value vouchers to YouTube Premium subscribers to use when buying the Pixel 8, upped its trade-in prices, and given $100 store credit coupons to random Google Photos users. Some Google One users also reported receiving a huge $250 voucher for a new Pixel 8. It feels like the phones might have been on sale, or subject to some kind of discount, for longer than they have ever been full price.
Google has never been shy about cutting prices for its hardware, it doesn’t rigidly stick to its price guns like Apple. The Pixel series has also undergone several rebrands in the last decade. From budget-friendly phones like the Nexus 5 and Pixel 5, to the current high-end handsets we see today.
But this level of aggressive pricing is unusual for the company and I suspect it might be the new normal. Not just for Google, but for many other Android makers.
Google is making a serious play to be the principal Android device. It has been on this path since it started making its in-house Tensor chipset in 2019. In recent months, the company ramped up its efforts by cleaning up its many paid-for software services—a core part of creating an integrated, Apple-like, ecosystem.
Google One now has Nest Aware and FitBit Premium bundled in (although it’s still missing something), Google Podcasts is being merged with YouTube Music, while YouTube Premium has been revamped with paywalled video quality and AI-powered features. Google Photos, Gmail, Drive and other Workspace apps have several new free and paid-for AI features to boost productivity, too. Read about those here.
Google wants you locked in to all of its services and the portal to them is a Pixel phone. Of course, you can access everything listed above through other, non-Pixel, devices. But Google releases some features as Pixel exclusives to entice buyers into its biosphere. AI-powered camera tools like Best Take, Magic Editor and Video Boost were Pixel exclusives until the company later made them freely available to all Photos users.
But Google’s Pixel 8 is decidedly not the principal Android phone. If such a crown were to exist, it would go to Samsung, which is the most popular Android brand in the world and (now) the second most popular smartphone brand globally.
Samsung got there in a few ways, but aggressive marketing tactics that directly targeted its rivals, alongside extreme money-off deals, will always stick in the memory. As Google attempts to claw more market share and get more people to pay for storage, AI features, and other services, I don’t think these deals will stop any time soon.
