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Google won’t make the world’s fastest growing smartphone market wait for long to get its hands on the new Pixel and Pixel flagship smartphones. This is a stark deviation from the general norm that sees companies take weeks — and sometimes months — in bringing their top smartphones to India. 

Google announced today that stores across Indian cities will start selling the Pixel and Pixel XL starting Tuesday. This is a welcome move for many in the country who were hoping to grab the smartphone ahead of the Diwali festival later this month. Google unveiled the Pixel smartphones earlier this month. 

Flipkart, Google India’s online seller partner for Pixel smartphones, has also informed customers who had pre-ordered that it will begin shipping their smartphones starting tomorrow. A Google India spokesperson said that Flipkart is shipping some inventory starting today, though the general availability is Tuesday. 

The Android maker is leaving no stones unturned for what it’s calling first "Made by Google" phones. Earlier this month, Google said it had partnered with HTC India for after sales support of Pixel smartphones in the country.  

Google says it will also offer support for Pixel smartphones at 56 HTC India walk-in service centres in more than 30 cities in India. The company will also offer a toll free phone support service at 18004190655 in India. The number will be functional all days of the week between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm (local time). 

The Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are available to purchase from Flipkart and over 1,000 retail stores in India including retail chains like Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay Sales. Experts and users alike across the world have nice things to say about the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. 

We just witnessed Google’s moonshot. They’re ready to play hard(ware) ball at an Apple level. No more half measures or product designs inspired by- or influenced by Google. The Pixel phone, which Google officially unveiled on Tuesday in San Francisco, is developed, designed and built by Google; it even has a “G” embossed on back.

The radical nature of this event cannot be understated. It’s a hardware move, a competitive move, a brand move, a risky move.

There is, for perhaps the first time ever in Google’s hardware history, a vision and it’s not actually built around search.

Okay, it is, but not in the way Google tried before. Google search and all the incredible artificial intelligence and machine learning it currently feeds moves to the forefront in the form of Google Assistant, which is rapidly becoming Google’s most important invention.

On the Pixel phone (and larger Pixel XL), Google search is still present, but instead of a persistent search bar, we get the Google “G”, ready to jump to action with a tap. Google Assistant is activated by holding the home button and asking a question. It’s the faster and more intelligent way to search and it was the theme of Tuesday’s presentation.

Google Assistant is also so much more than just a search front end. It is the intelligence, personality and voice that will follow you from one piece of new Google hardware to another. It’s the code that will add value and reason for owning more than one Google gadget.

The vision of Google in your life is anchored by Google Assistant.

To pull this off, though, Google needs not just competitive hardware, but truly lust-worthy devices that will inspire the masses to join the Google Assistant movement.

Handsets with a capital G

Google's Pixel phone is almost, but not quite that. The two handsets, the 5.1-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL are good-looking devices. They promise the best that Google has to offer in Android software, Nougat, and instant access to every update after that. The screens are HD, and almost bezel-free. The ports are, with the exception of USB-C nothing special. The body is interesting, if not innovative: A mix of materials (glass and metal) is either genius or a very big mistake. 

Aside from potentially over-reaching camera phone promises (“Best smartphone camera anyone has ever made”? Really, Google?), the phones do not appear to break any new ground. It’s also unclear if they’re water-resistant and can handle wireless charging.

I am impressed, though, that Google will let you store all of your full-resolution photos and videos in Google’s cloud for free. Apple offers some free storage to iCloud members, but I have yet to meet an iPhone owner who isn’t constantly running out of back-up space. Google and Pixel will handily solve that problem. (I will be carefully checking the fine print on this one, though.)

More impressive, though is the clean experience that will set the Pixel phones apart from virtually all other Android Handsets. The reason Google is launching the Pixel first on Verizon is probably quite similar to why Apple launched the iPhone only on AT&T. It was the only carrier back then that would agree to Apple’s strict terms. Now, with the Pixel on Verizon (only), history is repeating itself. Verizon will not be able to dump “VZ” bloatware on the handset. Instead, this will be Google’s curated handset experience, complete with pre-loaded apps like Maps and the FaceTime equivalent Allo (which smartly and unlike FaceTime is cross platform), and most of Google’s other key apps and services — a Google experience through and through that every other carrier will have to agree to before Google agrees to add them as Pixel partners.

You might wonder why Google didn’t beat the competition on price. The 32 GB entry-level Pixel is $649, just like the smaller iPhone 7. More importantly, though, Google’s pricing doesn’t undercut partners, many of which sell a range of affordable devices in emerging markets and, yes, some in developed nations like the U.S. By sticking to the premium phone class, Google may be trying to assuage some partner fears about Google encroaching on Android handset turf. (Good luck with that.)

I know people are excited about Google Home, but it doesn’t exactly blow Amazon Echo out of the water. There are, though, some smart touches that Amazon might choose to replicate. The stop listening button, for instance, will curtail false-calls to Google Assistant. Though I’m not sure how I’ll know the right moment to use it. How often do I cry out, “Ok, Google!” and not intend to address a Google or Android device?

Google Wifi is an important piece of the Google Assistant ecosystem puzzle: Walking into a room and loosing Wi-Fi connectivity on your new Google hardware would be frustrating and potentially cut you off from access to Google Assistant. An ecosystem only works if it’s ubiquitous. Better connectivity in all corners of your homes gets you closer to that ideal. However, like the rest of Google’s hardware, Google Wi-Fi is not a wholly new idea. Wi-Fi network extenders are becoming increasingly popular and mesh technology has made products like Eero home connectivity saviors.

A much better and more comfortable, dare I say cozy, VR headset is welcome for those who think they'll be consuming a lot of virtual reality through their new Pixel handset. But VR has yet to captivate the majority of consumers. The Dreamdream View is still a gamer play that will not inspire Google hardware converts. 

The brand

Google did not just launch a new ecosystem; it essentially relaunched its hardware brand with “Google” and the “G” as a logo at the center (Nexus is dead. Done. Buried without a funeral). When I spoke to brand experts earlier this week about the possibility of Google going “full Apple” and branding hardware with the Google name or logo, they told me it was a risky or even bad idea.

“I don’t know if they want to copy Apple and put their whole company name on it,” said Kathleen Carroll, CEO and founder of the Branding Clinic. The risk in the kind of branding Google is now engaged in is that the parent brand (Google, not Alphabet) loses the protection of a product line brand. If Pixel phone fails, Google’s name will get a black eye right along with it.

There is, obviously, another way of looking at it. Google’s belief in its new gadgets is so strong that anything short of Google branding would have been interpreted as tepid support for their own hardware initiative.

Whether or not these products are good enough to launch a new hardware brand, Google faces more challenges in its quest than, say, Apple did almost a decade ago.

Tough odds

Google launches its Pixel phones in a very different world than Apple did the iPhone nine years ago. In 2007, Apple had the benefit of appearing to price the device at $199. The end of contracts and subsidies means that every flagship and premium phone launched today (including Apple’s) sounds incredibly expensive (even though most of us pay them off monthly).

Back then, smartphones were special. They looked different than feature phones and, among the few companies that were producing data-sucking smartphones, different than each other. Nowadays, every smartphone looks like a slab. Commenters on social media complained on Tuesday that Google’s Pixel phones were boring. Really? How many of today’s smartphones look alike and a little dull? Yes, Apple has become the materials king (jet black!), but step away from those finishes and you’re quickly reminded that this year's iPhone 7 looks almost exactly like last year's iPhone 6S. The best smartphones almost have to be slabs of metal and glass to bring the functionality on the screen to life. 

What ultimately sets Google apart is, obviously, not the hardware. Yes, designing and building these devices gives Google control, but the end game for Google is not you owning all their hardware (they want you to, but it's a means to an end). It’s you using all their software and services through the all-important Google Assistant. It’s consumers deriving answers from the Google data universe wherever they are and whatever they’re doing. 

Will Google ultimately become Apple? No. But perhaps that was never the goal in the first place.

Few would argue Android got off to a slow start. Back in 2008, it was the eagerly anticipated Google mobile platform that was supposed to take on the barely year-old Apple iPhone and venerable RIM (BlackBerry).

The first Android phone, the HTC-built G1, was unusual and distinctive. It even had a dedicated, physical search button (so Google), but it didn’t inspire or sell very well. For a long time, Android appeared to have a failure-to-launch problem. Motorola arguably could be credited with rescuing Android from obscurity. Eventually, the Android mantle was passed from Motorola to Samsung and success built upon success until the platform owned a stunning majority of the global market.

So, yes, Android is a global brand. But that initial announcement was not a shot heard around the world. It was a small seed that grew into the towering tree that is Google’s mobile platform.

Google isn't planting a seed on Tuesday. Its fall hardware unveiling will be more, it hopes, like dropping a Star Trek II-style Genesis Effect bomb on a barren planet: terra-forming it instantly with millions of Google hardware converts. Am I exaggerating? A little. But check out this bold promise:

A memorable day means that Google has to do more than just officially launch all the hardware they introduced last summer. It has to do a hard reset, unveil mobile surprises and brand-new handsets that finally do what the G1 couldn’t do nearly a decade ago: position Google as a handset manufacturer equal to Apple.

It's the right time for Google to do something bold and, maybe, a little crazy. The search giant has, after all, only partial control of the Android narrative. When most people think of a leading Android smartphone they think about Samsung and then LG and then maybe HTC. Motorola is still in there, too, though it doesn’t hold the same position it once did. Heck, now people can include BlackBerry and Android in the same thought.

It's the right time for Google to do something bold and, maybe, a little crazy.

None of these Android partners can be trusted to run 100% stock Android, though they’ve come much closer in recent years. Carrier partners are not much more helpful, stuffing handsets with their own custom software and still delivering Android updates on their own schedules, not Google’s.

Google will, if the steady stream of leaks we’ve been fed for the last few weeks hold true, unveil at least two new smartphones on Tuesday. Which is exactly what Google did last year. It also introduced a new Pixel C tablet.

“The last two were nice phones with solid features and with direct lines to upgraded latest software, but nowhere near an iPhone 6s Plus,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy.

The Nexus 6P and 5X were very good phones, but they quickly slipped from the public consciousness, almost as fast as we forgot the Pixel C. A quarter for anyone who can deliver of photo of one of those things in the wild.

Thinking different

Google can’t expect to make waves when it's paddling with the same oars. Delivering yet another set of Nexus phones designed more to influence Android partners than to actually move the market won’t be enough.

It feels like it's time for Google to have its Microsoft Surface moment: blow away (and maybe piss off) partners by designing, building and aggressively selling its own hardware. Some see this as a way forward for Google.

“Making their own hardware is a way to help them gain back control of Android. Although it is a risky move, if they get strong carrier support and more importantly can guarantee that these products will always have the most current OS on them, then it could go a long way toward giving them a better position against Apple and other Android smartphone vendors,” said Tim Bajarin, President of Creative strategies.

Bajarin thinks Google has a big opportunity here. They’re certainly going to have the attention to do something big.

“It is a major hardware event where Google positions themselves as a major player like Microsoft has done with their Surface products,” said Bajarin. 

Google, obviously, does make and sell some of its own hardware. But they’ve been wildly inconsistent. For every Chromecast (a $35 success — relatively — from day one) there’s been a dumped-on-the-road Nexus Q.

However, up until now, Google has never married hardware and software in a way that effectively illustrates the power of their search engine, vast data stores and growing expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Google Home, the smart speaker and digital assistant, could be that product. In fact, it could be the hardware game-changer Google desperately needs. Moorhead thinks Home represents a strong opportunity.

Imagine “Google Home working spectacularly with their Pixel- or Nexus-brand phone — if they’ve optimized the microphones to work perfectly and it does things that Alexa and Siri can’t do and does it a lot better,” said Moorhead.

However, that kind of integration is difficult to achieve. And Moorhead worries Google may not be able to deliver a flawless and consistent experience from the living room to the Nexus or Pixel Phone.

Who are you?

With Cardboard, Chromecast and even Google-branded Wi-Fi, there could be more than half-a dozen hardware announcements on Tuesday. Some experts, though, still don’t believe hardware is the goal.

“Google is not turning into a hardware business,” said Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson. He told me Google simply wants to showcase its information access across a wide variety of connected devices. 

“Search is increasingly taking place in many more places, via many more devices and through new interfaces — with a growing number of voice and visual requests. To stay relevant for marketers in the long run, the Google Assistant is likely to be the driving force behind Google’s hardware moves.”

What’s in a name

But why would Google introduce so many different pieces of hardware? Do its Android partners really need that much guidance? There are, I think, indications that Google has bigger plans for these gadgets.

A look at the massive Google Pixel phone leak from Monday morning offers an interesting glimpse of how Google may want us all to think about their handsets (and hardware, in general) in the future. The image says “Introducing Pixel, Phone by Google.” "Introducing Pixel" is relatively small and “Phone by Google” is larger and more prominent. Does Google want us to start saying something like “I love my Google Phone?”

There would be few branding moves bigger than introducing “The Google Phone,” though, some are not convinced.

Pixel likely to be the standard bearer for “Google Phones” going forward.

“I don’t know if they want to copy Apple and put their whole company name on it,” said brand expert, CEO and Founder of The Branding Clinic Kathleen Carroll, adding, “Companies use other names to protect themselves in case it doesn’t go well [and] to keep parent’s brand equity very strong.”

Which means Pixel is still the more likely standard bearer for “Google Phones” going forward.

Google first used “Pixel” in 2013 when the company unveiled the Chromebook Pixel. Pixel was then less a brand name than an indication of the laptop’s rather remarkable screen resolution for the time (239 pixels per inch).

If Pixel does become the go-forward brand for its new line of flagship Android phones, the switch makes sense, said Carroll, especially if Google is bringing “revolutionary change.”

In fact, keeping the Nexus brand for technology that leapfrogs the competition would be, Carroll noted, a mistake. “Nexus has been out long enough and enough people are uninterested or are rejectors that [Google does] need a new name to get excitement and interest in category,” she told me.

Google hasn’t built up a lot of faith in its brand-management expertise. With the exception of Android, they still tend to introduce brands and then drop or ignore them. “Look at the Nexus brand,” said Patrick Moorhead. “It started with a certain promise and changed. Not disciplined brand management.”

When I asked Moorhead, Carroll and others about the possibilities of Google taking firmer control of “Android” as a brand name for their handsets, most thought that would be a mistake.

Calling the new phones Google Pixel, though, won’t necessarily solve all of Google’s device branding problems, but it could bring it into line with Google Home, Google Chromecast and Google Pixel C.

Google is Google

So let’s imagine that Google’s Pixel phones manage to raise the bar on photography, battery life, screen resolution and even affordability. They demonstrate a Google ecosystem of mobile and home devices that use the smartly rebranded Google Assistant as connective tissue, which follows you from the office, to the road to the home and back out again. 

It’s finally Google’s moment to prove that, as Bajarin put it to me, its hardware business “is not a hobby.”

In 90 intense and thrilling minutes, Google will finally deliver a unified vision for its software and hardware. It will feel, essentially, like an Apple event.

And more importantly, the excitement of the event will, finally, be matched by some follow-through.

This could happen.

On the other hand, Google’s event track record is terrible. In the last five years, there’s be exactly one break-out moment: When Google co-founder Sergey Brin (an arguably more dynamic figure than the brilliant but dull Google CEO Sundar Picahi) stunned a Google I/O audience by using parachute jumpers to introduced Google Glass (they actually wore the headsets while jumping out of an airplane). Ultimately, this perfectly illustrated everything that’s wrong with Google’s hardware approach. They were building cool gadgets for nerds, instead of useful, beautiful consumer electronics for everyday people. 

That moment probably worked because we were truly surprised. There were no expectations (except for the sky-high ones that existed right after the Google Glass reveal). 

By contrast, less than 24 hours from what could be Google’s most important unveiling in eight years, expectations are high and rising. “[They] set the expectations that they’re going to swing everyone around the room,” said Moorhead. “I feel like Google is setting themselves up for either a colossal failure or disappointment.”