The Internet giant Google during a Monday media event in India announced the first wave of low-cost Android handsets running the company’s optimized Android One software, with prices starting as low as $105.
“The world is filled with potential: people who are ready to leave their mark and need a phone as ambitious as they are,” said the firm during the event. The Android One project has been conceived to bring stock Android experience to inexpensive mid-to-low-range handsets sold in emerging markets such as Russia, India, Brazil and China.
The Android One initiative includes the latest Android version (Android 4.4 KitKat at the time of this writing) and stock experience free of carrier junkware and custom user interface skins, ensuring smooth execution on low-end devices.
Android One customers are allowed to update their devices to the latest Android version “soon after it’s released,” but there’s a catch — for up to two years only.
Indian vendors Micromax, Karbonn Mobiles and Spice will provide first Android One handsets with 4.5-inch displays and a quad-core processor made by MediaTek. More Android One handsets from Acer, Alcatel, Asus, HTC, Lenovo and Panasonic are to follow soon.
The search giant is betting that Android One can tackle Android’s widely reported fragmentation and ensure its lead in the emerging markets that have been experiencing double-digit growth of handset sales.
“Right now, only one in four people own a smartphone,” said Google. “Imagine what’s possible if everyone has a phone as ambitious as they are”.
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