Google Has No Plans For More Pixel Notebooks

Google has ended production of its Pixel laptop, which originally aimed to compete with Apple's MacBook Air.

During a small meeting with journalists today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google's senior vice president for hardware Rick Osterlohthe responded to a question about future Pixel notebooks, saying the company has "no plans to do one right now".

According to TechCrunch, he added that versions already on the market have totally sold out and there are no plans to make any more of them. However, Osterlohthe was quick to clarify that he was not referring to the notebooks' operating system, ChromeOS.

"Chrome OS is a huge initiative in the company," Osterloh said. "Google hasn't backed away from laptops. We have the number two market share in the U.S. and U.K. — but we have no plans for Google-branded laptops."

Google's Chromebook was the first device to carry the Pixel name, which has since been adopted by the tech giant's latest range of branded smartphones. The original Pixel laptops were launched in 2013 and were notable for their integrated hardware – which included a touchscreen – and their premium design appeal, but the web-only operating system only ran Chrome browser and a handful of other cloud-based apps, and prices started at $1,299.

The second version of the Pixel Chromebook launched in 2015 and cost $999. It was one of the first laptops to feature USB-C along with Apple's 12-inch Retina MacBook, but saw limited uptake due to the restrictive OS and prohibitive cost. Other third-party Chromebooks sell for as little as $250.

There's no cast-iron guarantee that Google won't launch any more branded laptops, but it seems the company wants to keep the Pixel name for its phones going forward, the only caveat being Google's Pixel C tablet, which it still sells.