https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16416376/google-pixel-phone-supply-problem-2017-event-preview

A year ago, you’d have been forgiven for dismissing Google’s new Pixel phones as a superficial rebranding of the company’s “hobby” Nexus line. Most observers believed Google was still dabbling in the hardware business, even with the new “Made by Google” branding introduced alongside the Pixel. But what’s happened since then is that Google bought the HTC team that built the Pixel and Pixel XL, retrospectively making those truly and entirely “Phones by Google.” And the devices themselves, developed over an accelerated timeline, turned out to be really rather good, standing out with their exceptional camera performance and image processing.

Today, Google takes the next major step in its Pixel adventure, and the trickiest challenge I foresee for the web giant is in figuring out the prosaic aspects of producing and distributing as many of its new devices as people will want to buy. What the Pixel of 2016 demonstrated was a Google hardware division that wasn’t too far behind its mobile competition in terms of design, components, and, of course, OS performance and fluidity. With its outstanding camera, the Pixel could justify its premium price and its owners could forgive its shortcomings as a (sort of) first-generation device.