14 DAY TRIAL // Only a few hours are left until Google announces its upcoming Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, developed in partnership with HTC. The phones were initially called Nexus Sailfish and Marlin, but it seems that Google changed its mind recently and rebranded them to Pixel.
Although HTC is the manufacturer of the two devices, it seems that the company wasn’t Google’s first choice. Seeing how last year’s Nexus 6P received relatively good reviews from critics and consumers, Google had placed Huawei at the top of the list of potential partners for the Pixel phones, according to a report by Android Police.
Negotiations between Huawei and Google reportedly broke down after the latter company demanded that partners did not place their logos on upcoming Pixel phones. This seems to have displeased Huawei, which then turned down the opportunity to manufacture the upcoming Google phones. However, it seems that the issue was somewhat deeper than that.
Google didn’t want Huawei to feature its name and logo on Pixel phones
Last year, when Google and Huawei partnered for developing the Nexus 6P, things didn’t exactly go as planned. The two companies had planned to make the Nexus 6P available at all four major carriers in the US, especially Verizon.
However, negotiations with the carriers broke down eventually and the smartphone wasn’t made available at any US network carrier. Instead, the companies conducted massive advertisement campaigns to promote the phone, but Huawei’s name and logo weren’t featured.
These seem to have been the terms that Google presented Huawei with and that determined the Chinese company to pass up the opportunity to create Pixel smartphones. All might not be lost, though, as the report mentions that Huawei and Google might be partnering to produce a mid-range phone next year.
In the meantime, Huawei is expected to announce a new smartphone in the coming weeks, the Mate 9. The company will be hosting an event in Germany on November 3.