Some AT&T shops seem to have stopped promoting Pixel for a predictable cause

You have to hand it to Google for honesty. Shortly after announcing the Pixel 9a, the company said that the release had been pushed back due to component quality issues. While it remains to be seen whether this will have any impact on the phone’s sales when it eventually starts shipping in April, anecdotal evidence from some AT&T customers and employees indicate Google’s phones are already not doing so great.The Pixel 9 series could be termed a turning point for Google’s smartphone lineup. In November, it was reported that the phone outsold past generations of Pixel devices in terms of quarterly sales and it might even have helped the company snatch Apple’s market share.

Google may have failed to maintain that initial momentum. Apparently, some AT&T stores have stopped selling Pixel phones due to their unpopularity. Not only does AT&T not sell many Pixel phones, but a lot of them end up being returned.

Went into an AT&T store today to look at Google Pixel phones to find out that they no longer have Pixel phones on display and aren’t selling them.

Sxcred, Reddit user, March 2025

I was in an in a AT&T store about a year ago and the guy said that they don’t really sell that many pixels and a lot of what they sell are returned.

Hurlamania, Reddit user, March 2025

Not everyone agrees that AT&T has dropped Pixel phones though. The company may be rearranging its display in preparation for the Pixel 9a, creating the impression that the carrier has stopped selling Pixel phones altogether.

It’s also possible that only the locations where Pixel phones aren’t popular have stopped selling them and other outlets still carry them.

We have it on good authority from Wave7 Research that AT&T still very much sells Pixel phones.

According to the firms’s latest report, Pixel’s overall share dropped across carrier stores in February. However, its share increased slightly from 3 percent in January to 3.6 percent in February at AT&T. In contrast, Apple’s share was 69 percent, while Samsung’s was 24 percent.

Pixel’s share dropped from 8 percent to 6 percent at Verizon, and from 6 percent to 4 percent at T-Mobile.

Pixel share slipped slightly in the survey. Share came in at 4% at T-Mobile and AT&T, but was 6% at Verizon.

Wave7 Research’s February 2025 smartphone report

Wave7 Research adds that “there have not been any recent changes to carrier Pixel portfolios, except that AT&T has dropped the Pixel 8a.” Two store representatives told the firms that the Pixel 9 continues to do well, while a third said that only one Pixel was sold during the last 30 days, and the customer ended up returning it due to connectivity issues.

This means that there’s at least some truth to the observation that Pixel phones aren’t a priority for many AT&T stores. The data may also reflect the overall sales volume, so even though the Pixel 9 is one of the best phones around, it’s still nowhere near as popular as iPhones and Galaxies.

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