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Alphabet (GOOGL) Boosts Its Smartphone Offerings With Pixel 8

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Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) Google ended the quest for its latest Pixel smartphones with the launch of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Notably, the Pixel 8 brings a 6.2-inch Actua display, 42% brighter than the Pixel 7, and comes in Rose, Hazel and Obsidian finishes with satin metal finishes.

Google Pixel 8 Pro, on the other hand, brings a 6.70-inch Super Actua display with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR content up to 1,600 nits and a Thermometer app for body temperature measurement.

Further, the new smartphones feature an upgraded core processor and artificial intelligence (AI)-based photography, summarizing and spam-calls-blocking features, incorporating AI technology into its consumer gadgets.

Further, the AI-focused features include the Magic Editor, Audio Magic Eraser, Video Boost, Zoom Enhance and integration of Bard AI chatbot into Google Assistant. These features aim to enhance user experience and improve video editing capabilities.

The Pixel 8 and Pixel Pro 8 will be available from Oct 12, starting at $699 and $999, respectively.

Alphabet is likely to gain a strong footprint in the smartphone industry on the back of its latest move.

Growth Prospects

Per a Mordor Intelligence report, the smartphone market volume is expected to hit 1.45 billion units in 2023 and grow to 1.78 billion units by 2028, witnessing a CAGR of 4.1% between 2023 and 2028.

A Fortune Business Insights report shows that the global smartphone market size is expected to reach $792.51 billion by 2029, indicating a CAGR of 7.3% during the forecast period of 2022-2029.

Solidifying prospects of Alphabet in the promising smartphone market will likely instill investor optimism in the stock.

Alphabet has gained 53.1% on a year-to-date basis compared with the industry’s growth of 50.5%.

Moreover, the new launches are expected to aid the performance of the Google Services segment.

Our model projects Google Services revenues for 2023 at $267.05 billion, reflecting growth of 5.3% from 2022.

Stiff Competition With Apple

The latest Pixel smartphones are expected to aid Alphabet in competing well with Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , which is riding on solid momentum in the iPhone.

Per an IDC report, Apple constituted 44.5 million smartphone shipments worldwide and accounted for 16.6% of the global smartphone market share in Q2 2023.

Apple is gaining well from its latest iPhone 15 series. Notably, the company launched the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus in five new colors, including pink, yellow, green, blue and black. iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are available in four colors, black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium and natural titanium.

Additionally, the iPhone 15 Pro features a 6.10-inch touch-screen display, a hexa-core A17 Pro processor and 8GB RAM.

Reportedly, the demand for the high-end iPhone 15 Pro Max is strong as shipment delivery has reportedly slipped to mid-November.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) and Asure Software (ASUR - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Applied Materials have gained 43% in the year-to-date period. AMAT’s long-term earnings growth rate is currently projected at 6.10%.

Asure Software shares have lost 2.8% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for ASUR is currently projected at 27%.

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