The products were launched at the annual 'Made by Google' event held in New York, which marked a return to more modest upgrades of its smartphones, smartwatch, and wireless earbuds compared to last year's event that industry analysts said was bigger and bolder than usual.

Google didn't need to make its own smartphone. Even though the company spent several years having other manufacturers build phones it could slap its "Nexus" branding on, selling hardware is not core to Google's business.