Alphabet Inc.'s Google on Tuesday announced a new Pixel smartphone and a suite of new consumer electronics products for the home, planting itself firmly in the hardware business and challenging Apple Inc's iPhone at the high end of the $400 billion global smartphone market.
The string of announcements — including the $649 Pixel, a smart speaker for the living room dubbed "Home," a virtual reality headset, and a new Wi-Fi router — is the clearest sign yet that Google intends to compete head-to-head with Apple, Amazon.com Inc. and even manufacturers of phones using its own Android mobile operating system.
Company executives, echoing Apple's long-standing philosophy, said they were striving for tighter integration of hardware and software.