Why do we buy the phones we do? Allure of the latest hardware and features? Smartphone manufacturers may want to believe that shoppers are malleable, and they’re just one big, flashy press event away from dazzling all those undecided minds and winning their sales. But is the truth a whole lot more cynical than that, and have many of us already made our minds up about our next phone long before it even debuts? With this week’s Pixel 9 launch, we’ve been thinking about brand loyalty, and why we end up choosing one smartphone over another.
Senior Features Editor Rita El Khoury shared the legacy of how Pixel got its hooks in her, starting years ago back with the Pixel 2 XL, and never really letting up. For El Khoury, the initial appeal was practical — smartphone journalists need to try out lots of different phones, and interest in Pixels was starting to take off. But then year after year, Pixel after Pixel, she found herself looking forward to the next generation in a way that transcended the needs of her job — she was becoming a proper fan.