Samsung is the face of Android OS across the globe, especially in the United States. Concerning the latter market, you'd think that Google's Pixel smartphone lineup represents the Android platform stateside, but that's far from the truth. Judging by sales figures shared by market analysts, it would take Google around 60 years to sell as many Pixel phones as Samsung sells Galaxy smartphones in one year.
According to sales reports by market research firm IDC, Google has sold 27.6 million Pixel phones since it introduced the lineup in 2016. And as highlighted by Bloomberg editor @vladsavov on Twitter, that's 1/10 of Samsung's sales in one single year (2021), which means that, at this rate, Google would need to continue selling Pixel phones for about 60 more years to catch up with Samsung's Galaxy phone sales across 12 months.
Samsung is Android OS and vice versa
It's somewhat of a scary thought that Google's smartphone lineup barely represents Android OS. But as we've said time and again, the Pixel series will never be a threat to Samsung's mobile business as long as Google doesn't establish an expansive global retail network. Google is primarily active in the United States, and even there, the Pixel line is utterly struggling compared to the Galaxy family of phones.
The same is true for smartwatches powered by Google's Wear OS, where Samsung had exclusivity over the latest OS version for wearables for nearly a year, and thus, it has the largest Wear OS 3 market share. Google is now trying to launch its first Pixel smartwatch, but it will probably have as steep of a hill to climb to catch up with Galaxy Watch sales.
Given the poor performance of the Pixel lineup relative to the Galaxy brand, it's no wonder Samsung has some leverage on Google — enough for the companies to collaborate on developing Android 12L for Samsung's foldable devices.
