Excited to find out what Google has planned for 2019? You’re not alone — Japanese newspaper Nikkei published a report about Google’s ambitions for 2019 that reveals a whole raft of new devices, including more Pixel phones than ever before, a new Google Home, and a Google-branded smartwatch.
The key takeaway is the idea Google is looking to rapidly expand the amount of hardware it offers. At the moment, Google offers its Pixel phones, the Google Home smart home range, and a smattering of other devices, including the enterprise-focused Titan Security Key. However, 2019 could be the year Google steps it up a notch by offering a lot more physical goods to consumers.
One of the biggest mentions goes to the long-rumored budget versions of the Pixel 3 range. The Nikkei report doesn’t reveal much we didn’t already know — except that Google intends to use these phones to “spearhead” the expansion of its hardware this year. That implies we’ll be seeing it before anything else, and that has us excited. But don’t worry if you’re a fan of premium hardware — the report also says Google is planning on releasing the Pixel 4 range this year, and we expect we’ll see that in October, as usual.
But Google apparently doesn’t intend to stop there. Also mentioned in the report is a Wear OS-powered smartwatch intended to take on the Apple Watch — presumably the long-awaited Pixel watch — and a new security camera. The camera is likely to be a Nest product, as Google purchased the startup company in 2014.
Also interesting is the mention of a new Google Home product — without many indications as to what that product could be. With the standard Google Home, Home Mini, Home Max, and newly released Home Hub, Google’s Home range has most of its bases covered so it’s possible this could be an updated model for the Google Home, rather than a new product. However, we wouldn’t discount anything at this early stage.
Most eyes are currently trained on the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 20, and the annual MWC 2019 show that runs at the end of February, so we weren’t expecting to hear much about anything from Google until later in the year. Google does show up at MWC most years, but only usually to announce new software. However, this year could be different with this supposed “hardware expansion” from Google.
