When Google’s senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichai arrived in India to launch the first Android One handsets in the world, he opened a new chapter in the history of Android. For the first time, a worldwide initiative was being taken by a major OS player to make its best features available not just to geeks, but to the mainstream smartphone user. Android One was not about high-end, expensive flagships but about the best of Android being available to the common person on the street, at affordable prices with assured updates (something that was available in the past only to the Nexus series and the Google Plus editions of different devices). Speaking at the launch, Pichai explained the essence of the Android One initiative, which had been announced earlier this year. “If we look at how people are getting online and accessing information today, increasingly it’s through a smartphone. While 1.75 billion people around the world already have a smartphone, the vast majority of the world’s population— over five billion more—do not. By working closely with phone and silicon chip makers to share reference designs and select components, we’re making it easier for our partners to build phones that are not just great to use, but also affordable. With Android One, we not only want to help people get online, we want to make sure that when they get there, they can tap into the wealth of information and knowledge the web holds for everyone.”
Android updates for the masses!
At the core of Android One is the fact that the
devices released as part of the initiative will receive regular Android updates from Google itself, and most important of all, will be extremely affordable. Considering that this has been a facility reserved in the past exclusively to the Nexus series and for Google Play editions of devices, this is very significant indeed. It is a feature that Google’s Menon is keen to
highlight. “We’re proud of Android One. We have a growing number of OEM partners who will make devices for multiple countries around the world,” he says. “These affordable phones will have the latest version of Android and get updates directly from Google, so we’re really bringing an experience that was once only common in a few countries to billions of people.” He is also keen to point out that Android can now run on devices even with relatively modest specifications, so a consumer’s experience with an Android One device is likely to be a smooth one. “ With KitKat, we made Android much more lightweight. Today, you can comfortably run Android on a phone with
only 512MB of RAM. This means that you really don’t need incredibly powerful hardware to run Android, HD videos, 3D games and your favourite apps smoothly,” Menon points out. “Android One phones have great processing power, so users can get information quickly. They have high-quality front and back camera. And all those photos, along with all their apps and videos, take up storage space, so these smartphones have ample memory as well as a microSD slot to add more. We have also added features that we know people in India will find particularly useful, like dual SIM cards, a replaceable battery and built-in FM radio.”
ONe ANDROID or more ANDROID?
On paper, Android One is a very powerful initiative, as it makes devices with the latest version of Android available at relatively low prices – the first batch of Android One
devices started from as low as Rs 6,299. However, there is some concern that the biggest strength of the devices – the latest version of Android with assured updates might not appeal to the segment which purchases
devices at these price points. After all, being concerned about the version of Android is supposed to be geek rather than mainstream user territory. There is also the little matter of a number of notable devices already available at the same price points, some with tech specs comparable and even superior to those being offered under the Android One initiative – the Moto E, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S and the Asus ZenFone 4 are just three instances. In fact, even some of the members of the initiative have devices with comparative specs and prices – Micromax has the Unite 2, while Xolo has the Iris X1. Google’s Menon, however, feels that this plethora of options is unlikely to confuse the Indian consumer. “There is a vibrant ecosystem around Android and room for many partners to do well and innovate. As part of the Android One campaign, we are working closely with partners and offering reference boards, qualified components and pre-tuned/optimized software that helps OEMs bring high-quality phones to market faster and in a cost-efficient manner. As Android One moves forward, you can expect a broad family of smartphones with different prices, designs, and function
ality. We will have more devices in different price segments in the near future. We want to give manufacturers a menu of choices so that they can assemble a broad set of smartphones under the Android One family with different prices, designs, and functionality,” he says. Spice’s Bindal agrees, “The fact that your phone remains the latest always is a strong proposition in a market where technology changes by the day. The sub-10,000 price category is fiercely competitive and product differentiators will have the advantage.” There is, of course, also the hope that
Android One will cure the OS of one of its biggest problems – fragmentation, due to which different users end up with different versions of Android.
0 Comments