海角大神

Can Google's Pixel overtake iPhone's cultural clout?

The Pixel cannot succeed simply by matching the iPhone鈥檚 technical specs, say observers. It will also need to tap into the deep-seated habits and loyalties of millions of smartphone consumers.

Google鈥檚 new phone won鈥檛 hit the market until Thursday, but the reviews are already in: when it comes to speed and features, Pixel has got what it takes to loosen Apple鈥檚 grip on the smartphone market.

But before it can do that, Google must surmount a much trickier and far less tangible obstacle: the cult of iPhone.

Despite waning sales in recent months, the iPhone is still a ubiquitous cultural presence, and that is unlikely to change overnight. The Pixel can鈥檛 simply match the iPhone鈥檚 technical capabilities and hope users will switch. It will also need to tap into the deep-seated habits and loyalties of millions of smartphone consumers. But will it?

When the iPhone made its 2007 debut, it opened a realm of possibilities greater than Steve Jobs could have imagined. For the first time, consumers understood that their phone wasn鈥檛 just a phone, but a true miniature computer. Before that moment, even high-tech devices like the Blackberry were mostly marketed to executives as a way to send emails on the fly.

Apple鈥檚 timing couldn鈥檛 have been better. The company, perhaps unknowingly, introduced a model for future smartphone manufacturers to emulate. Microsoft and Samsung eventually joined the party, introducing high-end phones with comparable user interfaces and superior processing capabilities. But none could wrest the market from Apple.

鈥淎pple is basically saying that people don鈥檛 care about specs, nor do they care about the price point,鈥� Erica Robles-Anderson, a professor of media and culture at New York University, tells 海角大神 in a phone interview. 鈥淔irst and foremost, they care about some sort of form factor, look, or feel. And if that鈥檚 the case, then you have to have something sufficiently alternative. And I don鈥檛 think Google has given us that.鈥�

The iPhone, like most Apple products, has earned enough cultural capital to inspire long-lasting brand loyalty. In an interview with Atlas Obscura, Dr. Robles-Anderson went as far as to

鈥渋Phone marketing campaigns make people believe they are a part of a grand social movement, even when that community appears so highly commercialized,鈥� says Isabel Pedersen, a professor of digital culture at the University of Ontario, in an email to the Monitor. 鈥渋Phone has mastered the feeling that you belong to a tribe and that you earned it 鈥� not only through an expensive phone, but also through your identity, your personality, your friends, and your loyalty. I don鈥檛 think Android has mastered that yet.鈥�

In some ways, the Pixel is Google鈥檚 most iPhone-like offering yet. It embraces minimalistic curves over the industrial angularity of many Android phones, although it emphasizes the headphone jack where Apple fields controversy for abandoning it. The Pixel also comes with its own cheeky personal assistant.

But emulation may not be enough, some experts say. To really sell the Pixel, Google has a considerable branding challenge ahead.

鈥淕oogle Pixel needs to presuppose and cultivate a Pixel user, 鈥榓 person,鈥� more than simply a tool or technology in order to win market share from iPhone,鈥� says Dr. Pedersen. 鈥淎pple鈥檚 [advertisement] 鈥楾he Human Family: Shot on iPhone,鈥� for example, is sickly sweet in its approach, but it works. It grips its customer with nostalgic identification.鈥�

Then again, Google鈥檚 attempts to force its way into Apple鈥檚 wheelhouse may be futile. It鈥檚 not the company鈥檚 first hardware offering, after all 鈥� the Nexus arrived with big promises, but failed to make a splash.

鈥淚s the Pixel so much better than the Nexus 鈥� or any of Samsung鈥檚 offerings, or any of Apple鈥檚 offerings 鈥� that it will really turn heads?鈥� asks Hansen Hsu, curator of the Center for Software History at the Computer History Museum, in a phone interview with the Monitor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an open question, because it鈥檚 really late in the game. If the Pixel had come out in 2008 or 2009, maybe we鈥檇 be talking.鈥�

鈥淭he game is almost over if you鈥檙e not Samsung or Apple,鈥� Dr. Hsu adds. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if anything Google does can make a difference in terms of market share.鈥�

But as our devices become increasingly connected under the Internet of Things, Google may have a new opportunity to redefine the smartphone 鈥� just like Apple did almost a decade ago.

鈥淲e used to think like, 鈥楥ould it get out of the box?鈥� Now our shoes are smart,鈥� Robles-Anderson says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a radical capacity for computing to be in everything, which is a kind of branding challenge.鈥�

Google鈥檚 parent company, Alphabet, is actively devoting funds and resources to development projects in artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and smart home technologies. By properly linking these new areas of computing to its smartphones, experts say, Google could carve out its own successful niche.

鈥淧eople aren鈥檛 really locked into a phone because of the phone. It鈥檚 part of a whole ecosystem of computing devices. It鈥檚 a culture move at this point,鈥� says Robles-Anderson.聽鈥淧art of the challenge is to go back to the drawing board and not think so much about the smartphone.鈥�