like finally , at this moment , we ’ ve gotten to the place where we feel really good about the innovation we ’ ve been able to build ,” said Osterloh in a recent interview with The Verge .

Finally , after five years of little to no progress in the smartphone space , Google Pixel has arrived , armed with the Tensor - the custom-built chip designed to finally do justice to the mind-bending suite of AI tools that the company can cram into its phones .

“ AI is the future of our innovation work , but the problem is we ’ ve run into computing limitations that prevented us from fully pursuing our mission ,” wrote

Osterloh in a blog post for Google in the Summer of 2021 . “ So , we set about building a technology platform built for mobile that enabled us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning to our Pixel users .”

The result is outstanding AI-enhanced photo capture to truly futuristic voice recognition - gesture controls are rumoured to be in the works . Osterloh makes no secret of the fact that he ’ s been waiting for Google ’ s hardware to catch up to its software for a while .

“ Tensor enables us to make the Google phones we ’ ve always envisioned — phones that keep getting better , while tapping the most powerful parts of Google ,” he says .

Writing the phrase “ Google has finally arrived ” feels weird ( on a Chromebook , using Google Docs , listening to The World is Not Enough by Garbage through a Google Nest ), but until now , in the smartphone arena , it hadn ’ t happened .

Thanks to Rick Osterloh ’ s drive to bring decades of consumer device experience to Google ’ s smartphone division , Google ’ s software finally has hardware to match . Osterloh reflects that “ It ’ s definitely a step change moment for us . We see this as truly the starting line for Pixel .”

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