Google Trails Smartphone Leaders Across the Funnel

Google’s Pixel smartphones have improved notably over the past few years, gradually closing the gap to flagship phones from market leaders Apple and Samsung in terms of features while consistently beating them on price. However, the Pixel brand still lags behind Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy line at every stage of the funnel. That’s according to survey-based brand KPIs included in Statista Consumer Insights.

While most U.S. respondents know the Pixel brand, far fewer say they like it or even own a Pixel smartphone compared with the two market leaders. The gap widens sharply between consideration and conversion: Apple and Samsung retain a much larger share of users who move from “like” to “own,” whereas consumers are apparently hesitant to switch to Google’s Pixel ecosystem.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Pixel smartphones are bad or unpopular, though, it can also be interpreted as a sign of brand stickiness. Having built a huge user base early on, Apple and Samsung have to do considerably less to convince users to stay within their well-known ecosystem than Google would have to in order to make them switch to a Pixel device.