Google Making A Hardware Team In Shanghai With Focus On Phones And Google Home

A report came from The Information, which tells that Google is building a new hardware team in Shanghai that will focus on the development of smartphones and Google Home. The company has increased the number of engineers in its Shanghai office from 20 to 150 in just a year. Most of the new engineers previously worked at Apple or Amazon and have excellent experience in hardware and supply chain management.




In addition to smartphones and Google Home, the hardware team is also focusing on Pixelbook, VR headsets and wearable devices. The office of the team is located in the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is one of the largest buildings in the world. The rapid expansion of the team led Google to expand its office to another floor as well.

The report says that Google is not interested in selling its hardware in China. Instead, it is working closely with many low-cost OEMs there for its future products and has reportedly even struck deals with some of them.

A dedicated hardware team in China will allow Google’s hardware division to quickly come up with prototypes, source key components for cheaper and more. After all, the majority of the smartphone supply chain is located in China which allows Chinese OEMs to rapidly innovate and acquire components at a lower rate than others.

The move will also hopefully help improve Google’s strained relationship with the Chinese government. Google and its various products and services like YouTube, Google Play and even Google Search are completely blocked in China. Due to this, the company is missing out on a market of over a billion consumers and one of the largest smartphone markets in the world.


Source : The Information