Back in June Google has announced their Android One project. Karbonn, Spice and Micromax have unveiled their smartphone offerings at Google’s event in India, which is the strong emerging market for smartphone and the second biggest mobile market in the world. Google’s senior vice president and head of Android and Chrome, SundarPachai, has announced 9 new OEM partners for Android One program. He also announced a new chipset partner, Qualcomm in this event.
Android One is starting with hardware partners such as Micromax, Karbonn, Spice and chipmaker MediaTek, Google notes. It will then expand to Indonesia, the Philippines and South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) by the end of the year, with more countries to follow in 2015. Over this time, many additional partners, including Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, Xolo and chipmaker Qualcomm will come on board.
The handsets will provide a minimum set of features determined by Google and will sell for affordable handsets in the competitive Indian phone market. The company has also teamed up with a local network to make it cheaper to download Android updates and new apps.
So what Android One is?
Android One is Google’s project announced back at Google I/O. This means Google is partnering with OEMs in order for them to bring devices which contain Google’s software inside, which means they will get timely updates. Manufacturers can still implement their own apps inside, though they can’t skin the OS or anything of the sort. Goal of this project is to offer solid smartphones to consumers while keeping their prices low.
Benefit for the customers
Google’s Android One based smartphones are likely to have a huge impact on the smartphone industry in India. Benefit for the customers is that they will get more affordable phones with better specifications.
Availability:
Google has tied up with Indian OEMs likes of Micromax, Karbonn, Spice & CelKon to launch Android One-based smartphones in India. Micromax to take the first mover advantage as the company is all set to debut its Android One-based phone in India on Sep 8 (Sport 4.5-inch display, Quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 5MP Camera, Dual-SIM support, FM radio, SD card support, 1750 mAh battery, Rs. 6000)
According to Google, in a few weeks time, you can get an AndroidOne phone in brick and mortar shops.
“Most people are only able to make simple voice calls, rather than connect with family through a live video chat, use mapping apps to find the closest hospital or simply search the web,” Mr. Pichai notes. “We want to bring these experiences to more people.”
So how big is the potential market?
Google says that 1.75 billion people around the world already have a smart phone. And while reaching “the next billion users” sounds like a laudable goal, the real target is the over 5 billion people worldwide that do not have smart phones.
