Google this afternoon reported its Q4 2021 and fiscal year earnings. Right off the bat, CEO Sundar Pichai touted a “quarterly sales record for [its] Pixel phones, despite supply constraints.”
Of course, Q4 (October to December) covers the busy holiday season. Google’s lineup included the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, as well as the Pixel 5a launched in August.
“Our deep investment in AI technologies continues to drive extraordinary and helpful experiences for people and businesses, across our most important products. Q4 saw ongoing strong growth in our advertising business, which helped millions of businesses thrive and find new customers, a quarterly sales record for our Pixel phones despite supply constraints, and our Cloud business continuing to grow strongly.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet
Alphabet does not provide specific numbers for hardware sales, but rather reports it as a broad category called “Google other revenues.” Including hardware, the Play Store, and non-advertising YouTube (Premium, Music, TV, etc.) revenues, that line item came in at $8.16 billion this quarter versus $6.67 billion in Q4 2020.
This sales record comes as the Pixel 6 line is not available in all of Google’s usual European and Asian markets. Similarly, the affordable Pixel 5a is only sold in the US and Japan. Another issue, as alluded to by Pichai, was constrained Pixel 6 supply especially towards the end of last year.
Back in August, the company committed to spending more on marketing the Pixel 6 than any previous Made by Google phone. This took the form of billboards, high-profile sponsorships, and spokespeople (1, 2). It also included signing 45 carrier and retailer partnerships.
Updating…
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments