Sometimes all you have to do is confirm an unannounced product to get the rumors to bed I think. That was Google’s strategy this afternoon, following earlier rumors from Android Central that a chip shortage brought the Kibosh to the mid-budget phone.
Commenting on ., a Google spokesperson noted, “Pixel 5a 5G will not be canceled. It will be available in the US and Japan later this year and announced in line with the launch of the A-Series phone last year. “
During that time frame, the device would arrive around late summer, which means it won’t arrive in time for Google I / O in May, some speculated. Interestingly, the company appears to be limiting the availability of the device to two countries – at least at launch. This could possibly be due to previously reported component bottlenecks.
As The Verge notes, the company has not been particularly valuable on product announcements. The company took a similar approach prior to releasing the Pixel. In either case, this isn’t exactly a large company’s standard approach to rumors denial, which is either not to respond or to be otherwise distracting.
Google may be pretty nervous about their Pixel line these days. The phone line didn’t exactly turn the mobile world into a storm, leading to long-standing rumors that the company is trying to mess things up. This was in part, apparently, confirmed by some fairly high profile exits.
While there were issues on the premium side, the company’s budget line “a” helped increase the total. No word on specific specs yet, but the handset is not expected to represent a radical departure from its predecessor.
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