One of the first things we noticed about the new Google Pixel 9 series is that the design looks more than a little like the Apple iPhone. This is likely not a design choice Google made by accident, and may be part of a strategy to lure iOS users over to Android.

A quote from Google senior vice president Rick Osterloh last week hinted at this approach. Discussing where Pixel buyers were coming from, the Google executive explained:

They come from a lot of people, some of whom have left the market and also from Apple, but ultimately we think we’re trying to grow Android share in general and that’s my main goal: trying to improve Android’s competitiveness, improve our innovation, improve the problems that we can solve for users at all levels. But we’ve certainly had problems in the premium space that we want to try to address.

The point about trying to gain Android market share in general is telling. You could interpret this as Google being more interested in selling the Pixel experience to iPhone users than to those already using an Android device. The rest of the quote seems to support that notion.

This makes sense, since Google owns both Android and Pixel. Converting a Samsung user to Pixel adds some additional hardware sales to Google’s bottom line, but convincing an iPhone user to switch also brings that person into the Android ecosystem. It’s a double win. If that last customer then strays away from the Pixel line, they can switch to an Android alternative and still add value to Google.

Such a strategy requires a subtle approach. It is no coincidence that Google’s two major showcase events this year focused heavily on software.

Such presentations used to be all about the reveal of the new phone, but we’ve seen a shift on that front. Google’s I/O event in May saw the introduction of the Pixel 8a, but that was almost an afterthought compared to the Android 15 demos and AI features on show. The Pixel 9’s launch at Made by Google earlier this month similarly focused more on what the new phone’s operating system would be capable of than the device’s specs. Android is what Google really wants to sell, and ideally to non-Android users.

That’s not to say the Pixel isn’t important to Google’s plan. The tech giant doesn’t have control over how Samsung or OnePlus implements its software, but the Pixel gives Google a hardware platform upon which it can demonstrate the full potential of Android, as Google sees it. The Pixel can also be shaped to look like the kind of Android phone any tech fan would want to have. As it turns out, that phone looks an awful lot like an iPhone.

By giving iOS users curious about Android an iPhone-like device, with three conventional models in the Pixel 9 lineup instead of the traditional two, Google is building a permissions structure that will allow it to make the transition from Apple to iOS as smooth as possible.

For any Apple-ites still on the fence, Google is willing to offer one more incentive. Trade-in values ​​for old iPhones are pretty generous if you buy the Pixel 9, especially compared to Samsung devices. For example, a base-model iPhone 15 will fetch a higher trade-in value than the base-model Galaxy S24, even though the latter is the most recently released phone. It’s not a new phenomenon — iPhones are often seen as depreciating slower and having a stronger resale market — but it certainly can’t hurt.

Time will tell, but our instincts tell us to be skeptical about how successful this approach will be. The Apple brand inspires fierce loyalty among its followers, many of whom would likely prefer an iPhone to one that looks like an iPhone, especially if the knockoff isn’t cheaper than the original.

The ultimate test will come next month’s iPhone 16 launch, complete with all the iOS bells and whistles. Some undecided voters will have seen what Android 15 brings and are waiting for Apple’s offering to compare. Google may think it’s opened the door, but it could take a major misstep from Apple to convince people to go for the Pixel instead. And Apple doesn’t miss very often.