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 had put the Kibosh on the mid-budget phone.
Commenting on TechCrunch, 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 period, the device would arrive in 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 corporation’s standard approach to rumor 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 longstanding 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.