Do you have an Android phone? No, I have a Galaxy. Just about every one of us at Android Central have had some variation on that conversation over the past few years. It underscores the difference in how normal people — those who don't live and breathe smartphone industry nonsense every day — view phones. For the vast majority of humans, the way a phone looks and what it's able to do is way more important than the operating system it runs or how up-to-date its software is. That's not to say consumers are ignorant, just that priorities outside of the Android/gadget nerd bubble are different.

Google's Nexus phones never enjoyed mass appeal. That's partly why Google's Nexus phones didn't catch on in a big way. Taken as a whole, their biggest selling point was that they ran Google's software as the company intended, and got new Android versions as soon as they were available. With the possible exception of the Nexus 6P, Google and its partners largely struggled to nail other really important parts of the experience — fundamental things like camera and battery life. Even the most visibly popular Nexus, 2013's Nexus 5, sold because it was cheap. Without the Nexus badge or Google's software, it was a boring plastic nothing with bad battery life and a temperamental camera. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines Perhaps just as importantly, Google never really learned how to play the carrier game in the U.S. The move to the Pixel brand suggests that Google, through its new hardware division, is serious about making a phone for the sake of making a phone, not just as a reference device for developers and a niche curiosity for enthusiasts. Serious money is being spent on serious, real world advertising — the sort you would expect to precede a major new Galaxy device. And the "made by Google" marketing line — although pedants will point out HTC, as an ODM, is actually behind the Pixel phones — is the first step in a journey that could take us through to new Google tablets and eventually laptops running the rumored 'Andromeda' OS. Google wants everyone to know it's serious about hardware, starting with the first Google phones next week.