Since coming aboard, GOOGL stock (there are two share classes) has shot from around $550 to over $800 in under 17 months. That translates to a market capitalization gain of nearly $74 billion. In order to help grow the non-search side of its business, Google is launching an all-out assault on the hardware market. On Oct. 4, it launched a laundry list of new products. [Read: Why You Should Buy More Foreign Stocks .] The highlight of the event was Google's new $649 smartphone, the Pixel, which heavily features Google Assistant, the company's newest AI-powered personal assistant. It also boasts a sleek design, a 12-megapixel camera it claims is the best of any smartphone, unlimited photo and video storage on the cloud via Google Photo, and a prominently advertised headphone jack. "It's obviously squarely aimed at Apple and the iPhone," Kessler says. Google also introduced a virtual reality headset, a new Chromecast Ultra, a smart wi-fi router and a product called Google Home.