At Google I/O, Senior Vice President in charge of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pichai announced the Android One reference platform which would launch in India in ‘the Fall’, according to a new report from The Economic Times in India, that could actually be next week.
With a release expected ‘early next month’, the launch partners for Android One in India – Micromax, Karbonn and Spice – are believed to be readying Android One handsets priced at between Rs 7,000 and Rs 10,000 (between AU$125 – AU$177), slightly above the $100 price point that Google originally announced. The hike in price is due to Google wanting to ‘offer better features and apps’ on the handsets.
While the handsets will be low-cost, that won’t mean a lack of updates. The nature of Android One, which sees Google in charge of the software updates, means that the handset will see an update from Android 4.4.4 which it will launch with, to Android L in October according to a source who spoke to The Economic Times.
Hardware wise, the report lists one of the phones to be launched as having a ‘removable back, 1700-mAh battery, dual SIM slots and SD card slot to expand memory.’ There will be differentiation in hardware however with rumours of 4.3-4.5¨ screens on the handsets and the phones will most likely come with a Quad-Core Mediatek processor, 1GB of RAM and a 5MP camera.
The Android One platform is aimed at developing markets, or as most tech companies are saying ‘the next 5 Billion’ users. With timely updates and rock-bottom pricing on what appears to be semi-decent hardware we also hope that someone in Australia will partner to create an Android One phone.
Which Australian manufacturer could step up to create an Android One phone?
Note: Contact us if you’re in India and can get a hold of one of these handsets for us. We want one!
