Apple
Dubbed Tensor, the forthcoming system on a chip (SoC) took four years to develop and amounts to "the biggest innovation to Pixel we've made to date," according to a statement from Google top-boss Sundar Pichai.
Tensor will be tailor-made for Google's machine learning algorithms and will feature a processor, a CPU, a GPU, and an image signal processor, all within a single chip. This level of integration will boost the processing power of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, reducing the amount of data both devices need to send to the cloud.
Google also announced a milieu of design refinements to its flagship phone.The new models come updated with an edge-to-edge display, new housing to accommodate the beefed-up sensors in the rear-facing camera, and a front-facing fingerprint scanner built into the display. The new model will also utilize Google's new design, "MaterialYou," allowing for elements of the Android interface to more easily blend with a given background.
Beyond that, the announcement was rather bare in terms of technical specs. Although, Google did disclose that the team behind Tensor included some former Apple chip designers and engineers.
"It's going to really transform what we can do on the phone with machine learning and AI," Rick Osterloh, Google's head of devices and services, told CNBC in a recent interview. "We've really made a custom computer built for computational photography."
During the interview, Osterloh previewed Tensor's ability to reduce motion-blur in photographs. Osterloh said this type of image processing could now be applied to videos, which he said wasn't possible before on other chips. Google's hardware boss also previewed souped-up text-to-speech capabilities, which will make it easier to dictate texts, and can even be used to generate translated captions for videos even while offline.
In-house processors like Tensor are not easy nor cheap to make. Google may have to raise prices, sell more units, or both to justify its investment.
Raising prices puts the Pixel in a precarious place. The Pixel's branding as a budget conscious-alternative to the standard flagship phone has given it a niche since 2019 when sales of the phone fist started to pick up.
While Google does make the world's most popular mobile OS, it's less than a David to the Goliath of Apple and Samsung when it comes to phone sales. Both companies move hundreds of millions of handsets between them each year, compared to the Pixel, which sold a mere 7 million units in 2019.
For Google, the question is, are better image processing and speech recognition sticky enough selling points to snag tens of millions of iPhone and Galaxy loyalists?
