Google wants to attract potential buyers upset at Apple Intelligence. Image source: Google
Pot meet kettle: the latest ad for Google Pixel 10 says iPhone owners should stop waiting around for unreleased AI and come to the platform where new features are abandoned at a breakneck pace.
Google has been taking pot shots at Apple during its Google Pixel ad campaigns, making fun of Apple’s implementation of AI and controversies surrounding it. The latest ad is an odd one considering Google considers one missed feature shipment worthy of jumping platforms when it is the king of killing projects.
Leaks in the world of Android have gotten so prevalent that Google has started pre-announcing its new smartphones to try and generate some hype before the monolithic iPhone season. The latest ad for its unreleased smartphone suggests that instead of buying a Google Pixel 10 for its features, whatever they may be, iPhone users should switch because of their annoyance at Apple missing a single feature shipment.
The ad is silly on its face, as Google’s shots at Apple generally are. It is similar to its previous Pixel ads mocking Apple’s innovation and Messages lock in.
Given the iPhone 16 has sold really well through its lifetime, it seems unlikely that customers are concerned over whether contextual Apple Intelligence powered by app intents has launched or not. Apple most recently suggested the feature is still coming in a more advanced form in early 2026.
And, that will still work on the iPhone 16.
While it’s improving year-over-year, and may have sold as many as two million units in the last year, Google Pixel is a niche product. The flagship Android targets a part of the market with enough money to spend on an iPhone or expensive Android product, but seeking a minimalistic and vanilla Android experience.
Pixel’s lower-priced a-series devices sell in better numbers than the flagships, since they offer nearly identical experiences at a lower price just months later.
1 delay versus 279 deaths
The crux of the latest ad does what Google’s and Samsung’s desperate pleas for attention normally do — point out Apple’s strengths. If Apple only missed out on shipping one of the dozens of features, albeit a significant one, revealed during WWDC 2024 and during the iPhone 16 keynote, it’s doing fine.
Meanwhile, Google has a graveyard of features, products, and projects it has abandoned as randomly as it started them. As of this publication date and time, it has 297.
It got to the point of absurdity that it announced the same photo editing feature that removed a chain-link fence from over a person’s face in multiple separate keynotes.
If Google’s simple ad convinces you to buy a Pixel 10 in spite of the company’s reputation to abandon almost everything it starts, then so be it. Apple is likely happy to have its AI efforts advertised by its competitors yet again.
Google will officially unveil the Pixel 10 on August 20, just in time to get ahead of Apple’s iPhone event expected on September 9. It is known as the choice among Android users for those that want an iPhone, but not iOS.
