It’s official; HTCs' Pixel team to join Google as part of its hardware division

Google has announced that HTCs’ Pixel team will join its team as the internet giant continues to push in the hardware territory.

This confirms rumours flying around the close collaboration between HTC and Google and HTC’s falling revenue despite stellar hardware like the recently launched HTC U11. However, HTC as a whole won’t be joining Google. Instead only the team behind the Pixel smartphone will be making the move to Google. This gives Google a position of strength as it will now have complete control of the hardware, something that has been holding it back as it aims to compete with seasoned rivals Apple and Samsung.

The company shared the announcement in a blog post on its website referring to the arrangement as an agreement between the two companies.

It points out that partnership between Google and HTC was not unprecedented. The two companies have worked previously to launch the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, the first Nexus device, the Nexus One, Nexus 9 tablet and the first Google Pixel device last year. The deal is valued at $1.1 billion dollars according to a report by Android Police.

We're excited to welcome some new talent to Google: announcing an agreement with HTC. https://t.co/4YrDP4XJ6s

— Google (@Google) September 21, 2017

The company pointed out that this ‘agreement’ is its ‘big bet on hardware’ to invest ‘for the long run’.

This announcement comes a fortnight before the launch of the second generation of Google Pixel devices. Google has noted that its still ‘early days’ for its hardware business.

One thing to note here is that this agreement also includes a ‘non-exclusive license’ for all the intellectual property that HTC uses while making the Pixel devices.