Google's Sneaky Pixel 10 Pro Upgrade
As one of the first smartphone ranges to receive Android 16, there's a lot of promise in the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro for those looking for the latest and greatest in mobile technology. Yet Google will want the Pixel family to appeal beyond the geekerati, and it might have found a way to help sell the upcoming Android flagship.
The latest reports point to Google shaking up the colorways on the Pixel 10 family, but is this a radical change or a refinement of the marketing message?
The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL will come in Sterling Gray, Light Porcelain, Midnight, and Smoky Green. Obsidian and Porcelain are missing, yet we still have what are expected to be very dark black, and very pale almost white colors on offer, along with a splash of presumably pastel with Smoky Green.
The Pixel 10 doesn't escape the color upgrade either. The upcoming base models will ship in Ultra Blue, Limencello, Iris, and Midnight. Like the Pixel 10 Pro handsets, the well-established Obsidian and Porcelain colourways are missing.
Are those two colors actually deleted? Obsidian could straightforwardly be called a very dark grey and would widely be regarded as black by consumers, and Porcelian, while further away from white, would still be seen as a pale and neutral colour. Aren't similar shades in the list?
Would it be a touch cynical to suggest that when the upgraded smartphone arrives, 'in four brand new colors' will make a great marketing line, even while the perception will remain of two colors accompanied by predominantly black and white choices?
The Pixel 10 family enters a highly competitive market, one where the smallest rise in price can have an outsized impact on sales, where one burst of fashion is easily noticed, and the sway that a new color can bring might make all the difference.
Even if that color fills the same space as the color it replaces.
Now read the latest smartphone headlines, including the Pixel 10 Pro pricing, in Forbes' weekly Android digest...
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