Google Pixel's 'Only on Verizon' pitch isn't what it seems

Columnist Ed Baig reviews Pixel, which features the high-IQ Google Assistant and a competitive, high-end smartphone camera. A. When Google introduced its Pixel and Pixel XL phones in early October, it picked a hybrid distribution strategy. Instead of selling these $649-and-up smartphones only on its own site, as it had with its earlier Nexus phones, it also signed up Verizon Wireless as a distribution partner. To judge from the ads during the World Series, only the second purchase option exists. They keep touting the Pixel -- "a winner for anyone looking for an excellent phone," USA TODAY's Ed Baig wrote -- as "only on Verizon," something Verizon's own page about the phones repeats.