Leaving China en Masse, Mobile Phone Factories Relocate Here

China has long been known as a manufacturing hub for electronic devices, including mobile phones. However, major phone manufacturers are gradually leaving China. Samsung, for example, completely closed its last factory in Huizhou in 2019, after its market share in the country fell sharply at the time.

More recently, Apple has also begun reducing iPhone production in China and shifting manufacturing to India due to the heated geopolitical situation between China and the United States.

According to a new report, Google also wants to end all Pixel line production in China next year. This includes phones, smartwatches, and earbuds.

In recent years, Google has expanded its production capacity in Vietnam and India to reduce its dependence on China. However, a ‘significant’ portion of Pixel products is still manufactured in China.

This 2027 deadline comes thanks to Google’s success in developing and producing Pixel phones in Vietnam this year. Because phones are more complicated to make than smartwatches and earbuds, the company is now optimistic it can make a full transition.

If the circulating plan goes smoothly, Google will become the second global phone brand to take such a step, following Samsung. This move is relatively easy for Google because it does not sell phones in China at all. The same applies to Samsung, given its very small market share in China.

Google reportedly plans to ship 8-10% more Pixel smartphones this year compared to last year’s 12 million units. To ease memory chip price pressure, Google is said to be combining chip orders for its cloud computing business with orders for phones in joint negotiations with the memory triopoly, namely Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.

In fact, an anonymous executive from a component supplier to Google and Xiaomi reported that Google could potentially seize some market share from Apple in the US, Japan, and Europe, when Apple eventually raises iPhone prices.