Google reveals it isn’t making tablets, smart rings, flip phones, or glasses (yet)

Google’s new Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel Watch 4 may compete with Samsung, but it’s happy to let Samsung explore other parts of the Galaxy on its own. In interviews with Bloomberg, Google just revealed a lot of devices it isn’t currently working on. Here’s Bloomberg:

Despite its partners Samsung and Motorola getting into flip-style phones where the screens opens up vertically like an old school Motorola Razr, Google says it intends to sit out that race. It’s also not currently working on a smart ring and has paused development on a tablet overhaul until it figures out a meaningful future for the category, executives said.

Pretty sure that’s the first true confirmation that the Pixel Tablet 2 was canceled! Remember when Google was done with tablets in 2019?

And though Google has repeatedly teased its own prototype glasses and even let us try them on, it appears that Google devices boss Rick Osterloh isn’t sure it’ll actually manufacture any glasses for sale:

Osterloh says it’s still “TBD” whether Google itself will release glasses again, but he’s intent on the category being part of the company’s future.

To be fair, Google has almost always shown off those glasses prototypes alongside the XR headsets it’s co-developing with Samsung, and — like Meta — it seems more interested in making Android XR a platform for other glasses partners too.

If Google were to release glasses again, though, Bloomberg did get one interesting hint about how they might work. Osterloh and his deputy Shakil Barkat suggested in the interview that display-free glasses might pair nicely with a smaller phone, one that could unfold for your entertainment needs as well. But, again, it sounds like Google wants to “sit out” Razr-style folding flip phones for now.

Google would hesitate before announcing glasses, I bet, because of its infamous fails with the original Google Glass. We ranked it near the very top of the list in our 84 biggest flops of the past decade in tech, though I imagine a modern version would get a less frosty reception in the post Meta Ray-Ban world.

Lastly, if you’re curious when Pixel phone design might change again, perhaps away from big camera bumps, design chief Ivy Ross told Bloomberg that the company tries on new design languages “every two to three years.” That means it’s due.