New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS): Google is set to start manufacturing its Pixel smartphones in India and to do that it has asked suppliers to begin production by the next quarter, or Q2, at the earliest, a media report said on Thursday.

According to Nikkei Asia, citing sources, this supply chain strategy is part of Google's ambitious goal of shipping over 10 million Pixel phones this year, after shipping around 10 million units for the first time in 2023 amid a global economic slowdown.

This move underlines the tech giant's determination to further diversify its supply chain away from China and capture the growing Indian smartphone market.

At first, the company will focus on the production of its high-end Pixel 8 Pro in the southern part of India, with production likely to begin in the April-June quarter. After this, production of Pixel 8 will be started in the northern part of the country in the middle of this year, the report mentioned.

In October last year, Google announced plans to manufacture Pixel smartphones in India, with the first model of the Pixel 8 coming to market in 2024.

As per IDC data, the Indian smartphone market grew 1 per cent to 146 million units in 2023, with the second half of the year seeing an 11 per cent increase over the previous year.