Big Marketing Push Pays Off for Pixel Phone Over Holiday

Ads for Google's Pixel phone were everywhere this holiday: Splashed across glossy magazines, the front of the New York Times website and spinning on TV during National Football League games. That aggressive marketing push, according to Bloomberg, produced a decent debut quarter for the smartphone, the first high-end device Google made itself.

The early traction came at a cost though. The online search juggernaut more than doubled its TV ad budget over the holidays to push Pixel and its new Home speaker, according to one research firm. Pixel devices accounted for 12.3 percent of phone activations with Verizon, the device's initial wireless carrier in the U.S.  There weren't enough devices at several outlets, the survey also found. Verizon declined to comment.

Investment bank Evercore estimates that Google shipped 552,000 Pixel phones in the fourth quarter. They pegged revenue from those sales at $386 million for the quarter. The bank also estimated initial sales of 500,000 units for Google Home, the $129 intelligent speaker meant to rival Amazon's Echo. "The demand for the Pixel phones has exceeded our expectations, which is exciting to see," Google spokeswoman Iska Saric said. She declined to comment on specific sales numbers or estimates.

Google sold the Pixel outside the U.S. with other carriers, and also offered the phones through its own online store, so total sales in the fourth quarter were likely higher than Evercore's estimate. James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., expects sales of about 1 million units in the period. Demand for Pixels likely got a boost from Samsung's disastrous Note 7 recall, which came just as Google introduced its phone.