It is clear that Google has strengthened the hardware division and has a policy of shrinking the Google Assistant, and on Android there is also the possibility that weak manufacturers will be neglected

In October 2022, Google released its own smartphone “ Pixel 7/7 Pro ” and smart watch “ Pixel Watch ”. In this way, in recent years, Google has been focusing on its own hardware, but this is due to the danger of losing the search contract with Apple, and Samsung, which holds the largest share of Android, has lost the share of the smartphone market to the iPhone. It is reported that it is because it is being broken.

Facing Threat From Apple, Google Tries New Hardware Playbook — The Information
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/facing-threat-from-apple-google-tries-new-hardware-playbook

Report: Google “doubles down” on Pixel hardware, cuts Google Assistant support | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/report-google-doubles-down-on-pixel-hardware-cuts-google-assistant-support/

Google is reportedly shifting its focus to hardware at Assistant's expense | Engadget
https://www.engadget.com/google-hardware-focus-shift-211515181.html

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the company needs to cut costs across the board, and in August 2022 will reduce the number of people in Area 120 , which serves as an internal incubator for new projects within Google. It has been reported that Since then, Google has been working to cut costs by discontinuing the development of its own notebook PC, the Pixelbook, and terminating the cloud game service Stadia .

Behind this is the slump of Google's biggest Android partner, Samsung. While Samsung is losing market share in multiple markets, Apple has achieved overwhelming success by accounting for 78% of the global high-end smartphone sales share of $ 1,000 (about 150,000 yen) or more in the third quarter of 2022. I have it . The Information points out that Google sees this trend of 'Android dropping share and iPhone expanding share' as a problem.

In addition, Google has signed a billion-dollar contract with Apple to adopt Google as the default search engine in Safari, the iPhone's browser application. However, it is subject to investigation by regulatory authorities as to whether this contract violates the antitrust law, and if the contract disappears, it may have a significant impact on Google's search advertising sales.

To address these issues, Google is doubling its investment in its own hardware Pixel series, reports The Information. In order to focus on the Pixel series, ``Google is moving product development staff and software engineering staff other than the hardware department to the Pixel department.'' In addition, it seems that it is the hardware development department of the third party that is supposed to receive this tilt.

According to information obtained by The Information from a source, Sissie Hsiao, vice president of Google Assistant development and senior executives, is considering reducing the number of people devoted to Google Assistant and Google TV. In response, Ars Technica said, 'Search is Google's second favorite product after advertising, so the decision to reduce investment in one of them, the Google Assistant, is hard to believe.' .

It's clear that Google plans to focus on developing its own hardware, but according to reports, it doesn't seem to completely separate existing hardware manufacturers. According to The Information, 'Google has named Samsung and Chinese brands OnePlus and Xiaomi as its best premium Android device partners, leaving a long list of other manufacturers who can't get similar attention from Google.' It is happening.'

Google's choice of favorite hardware makers was also done during the rollout of Wear OS 3, the latest version of Google's smartwatch OS. Wear OS 3 has been available as a Samsung-only OS for about a year since its release, leaving small OEMs like Fossil completely left behind. After Google released the Pixel Watch, Fossil was finally able to launch a smartwatch with Wear OS 3, but Wear OS 3 doesn't integrate fitness-related features, so Fossil's latest smartwatch doesn't have fitness. Related functions are not available. Meanwhile, Google is making fitness-related features available by linking the Pixel Watch to the Fitbit app.

I tried to measure sleep and heart rate and exercise using Google Pixel Watch and Fitbit application Review - GIGAZINE

The Information has asked Google for comments, but no response has been obtained at the time of writing the article.