Member-only story
Google Torpedoed The Pixel Brand
A week is a heck of a long time in the tech industry — Only 7 days ago Google was busy showing off its latest smartphones to the world. Leaked since January and announced 2 months ahead of schedule (to one-up the iPhone 16), The Pixel 9 was here with a striking new design and AI out the wazoo. Yet it hasn’t taken long for controversy to set in. With blunder after blunder from Mountain View it looks like they might have tarnished the Pixel brand for good. But how did they get here? And how might it have hurt them? Well, it all starts with Gemini.
Google like to collect data. Like a real-life version of Johnny 5, they seek to hoover up as much information on their customers as possible so they can show them adverts. Unlike the blindly cast nets of roadside billboards, internet advertisers like to directly target consumers. By keeping track of your browsing history Google (and lots of other companies; its not exclusive to them) can profile users tastes and interests ensuring the right ad reaches the right person. This exchange of personal data is the cost of entry for a ‘free to use’ internet. It is difficult to go anywhere in a modern society and not leave some digital footprint.
Google also need this data to train their next-gen AI Assistant known as Gemini. During the Pixel 9 event, Google talked about how Gemini would change users’ lives and at the centre of it…
