The timing is all wrong.
Google release their new phones and literally a few months later the next wave of phones are out with the latest processors.
This is something Google can and should change, whatever it takes to get their new phones out at the same time as the newest processors. Google has a terrible image problem when it comes to their devices. People hear 'iOS' and they think quality and they think iPhones. They hear 'Android' and they might think Samsung, or they might have an iPhone already and start thinking about that rubbish £100 Android phone their mam picked up from Tesco Mobile. Google need to fix this and the only way is to make a premium model that is actually premium. They've got the big selling points already - great cameras and pure Android (which people might learn to respect once the Pixel phones get more market penetration), but they keep screwing up time and again. They price their phones like a premium model but really they aren't premium. I mean, what's the name Pixel all about anyway? It sounds nerdy, rather than cool, like a load of programming geeks brainstormed it in five minutes during a morning breakout from the keyboards.