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Google's Android Go will change the way India buys budget smartphones

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Sushant Talwar
Sushant TalwarMay 18, 2017 | 15:20

Google's Android Go will change the way India buys budget smartphones

For years now, Google has been locked in a fierce battle with Cupertino-based tech giant Apple for dominance over the mobile phone market. While the competition focused on creating physical devices for a niche crowd, Google put its energies into coming up with a software solution to help phone manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi bring smartphones to the pockets of eager customers. 

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In continuation of the strategy, Google on May 17 unveiled a scaled-down version of its popular Android OS, which with its nifty optimisations promises to bring better functioning smartphones at an affordable price to millions of users in India.

With the launch of Android 1.0 in September 2008, the company started a revolution that led to the smartphone market expanding exponentially. At Google I/O 2017 – the company's annual developers conference – it announced that almost nine years from the first iteration of the Android OS, the revolution has grown to a staggering two billion Android-based smartphones around the globe.

However, speaking at the conference, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the company has no plans of slowing down and introduced to the world, Android Go – its weapon of choice for conquering the next 2 billion users. 

What is Android Go?

Android Go is Google's software solution to the problems faced by the fast-growing entry-level phone segment. After the failure of the Android One experiment – a Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 phone with decent specs – with Android Go, the tech giant is now targeting existing $50-100 entry-level phones in the market.

The company will make optimisations to the system UI and the kernel of the Android Go to enable it to run smoothly on devices with as low as 512MB of RAM. The OS thus promises to provide a better usage experience to devices with ultra low-end specs and cater to users who want to use their devices on primarily 2G networks. 

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Android Go will feature a rebuilt set of Google apps optimised for low using memory, storage space, and mobile data. [Photo: Google]

As Google explained, part of its mission is to bring computing to everyone and the company is excited about seeing more users come online for the first time as the price of entry-level smartphones drops. Speaking at the conference, Pichai said Android Go will also help manufacturers looking to build lower-cost phones that still offer a decent smartphone experience with the lack of higher-end specs, to reach the entry-level segment in an all new way.

Aimed at Indian Users

Of all the announcements made at the Google I/O 2017, Android Go is of the most interest to India. With many users in the country using entry-level phones, and millions of new users looking to buy affordable low-end phones that offer decent performance, the OS will help bring a streamlined, above par Android experience to a whole new user base.

But it won't stop there. With Android Go, the company will also launch a new version of Play Store that will bring new apps specifically designed for entry-level users. Google is said to be designing apps like YouTube Go, and a new version of Chrome that will be easy on mobile data – an optimisation that will be of particular interest to users in rural areas of the country where high-speed mobile data penetration still remains low. 

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It's still early days and probably premature for any talk about how popular the OS will perform in the country, but post its launch in 2018, expect Android Go to significantly change the landscape of the smartphone market in India.

Last updated: February 24, 2018 | 15:02
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