Today, Sina Tech was lucky enough to be able to interview the new head of Android, Sundar Pichai. One of the biggest head turns from yesterday’s keynote was when Hugo Barro pulled the Galaxy S4 out of his pocket and announced the Galaxy S4 with the Nexus User Experience. Basically Pichai said that their version of the Galaxy S4 is an exclusive device that was made by Samsung for Google. He also stated that this is not the fifth generation Nexus phone.
Pichai also mentioned that there are a lot of alternatives on the Android Market. In the past Google has partnered with HTC, Samsung and LG for various Nexus devices that run stock Android. HTC made the original Nexus, the Nexus One, Samsung made the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus and LG made the Nexus 4. Samsung and Google have a relatively close relationship since Android was rising to prominence. Samsung was willing to provide their flagship Galaxy S4 to Google and modified its ROM into stock Android. Google is hoping that developers and stock Android lovers able to purchase the Samsung Galaxy S4 when it hits Google Play on June 26th.
Pichai also said that users can define the device as the Galaxy S4 that exclusive for Google but it isn’t the Nexus 5. He did refuse to talk about the relationship between Google and LG though. Sina Tech also asked Pichai whether Google will work with manufacturers to release stock Android devices in the future. Pichai said that they don’t have that type of plan at the moment.
Also asked, was about the Motorola X Phone, he quickly changed the attention by saying that Google is concentrating on Android and should ask Motorola for more details. Looks like the Google isn’t related to the X Phone anymore which is what we heard a little over a week ago.
Pichai also mentioned that countries like South Korea and China don’t support Chrome as the local authorities in both countries using Internet Explorer more than Chrome. He was also asked how he handles the job of being head of both Android and Chrome at the same time, and he did admit that it’s not an easy job.