Google Wants To Design Its Own Smartphone Chips

Google is preparing to follow in Apple’s footsteps and begin designing its own hardware, according to reports.

The Information claims that the Android maker is now looking to work with partners to develop chips for mobile devices, possibly for its next generation Nexus smartphones and tablets.

This would be similar to Apple’s current process for the A family of processors in its iPhone and iPad devices, which are designed by them but manufactured by another company, most recently Samsung.

Home-grown

Google first began discussing designing its own chips a few months ago, the report says, with the roots emerging from the company’s desire to build an “enterprise connectivity device”, thought to be the Pixel C business tablet revealed back in September, which would be entirely composed of its own technology.

The company’s representatives apparently began discussions with several chipmakers, putting forward designs of chips it was interested in co-developing, including the main processor unit for a smartphone.

Having such control over the development and manufacturing process would allow Google to include accelerate implementation of future features into the next versions of Android. The company already provides its own-branded Nexus devices with the latest software features and updates first, before rolling them out to Android devices made by other manufacturers.

The company’s most recent Nexus smartphones, the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, (pictured above) made by LG and Huawei respectively, were revealed last month, and will run the latest version of Android, Marshmallow 6.0, although both were powered by Snapdragon processors made by Qualcomm.

The devices will also include fingerprint reading technology for the first time, and support Android Pay, Google’s mobile payment system, showing the company’s drive to include the latest technology in its smartphones.

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