Everything You Need To Know About Android One

At a press conference in New Delhi, Google unveiled the first series of Android One smartphones in India. Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice President for Android, Chrome and Apps at Google was there as he was at the Google I/O developer event earlier this year, announcing the Android One initiative to bring a rich Android experience to affordable smartphones.

Android One
The vision of Android One is to bring stock Android with timely software updates to sub-$100 smartphones. Essentially, it’s Nexus for the masses.

In an aberration from the usual course and like the Nexus and Google Play Edition products, Google will push the Android updates as and when they come instead of the OEMs. The devices will be automatically updated; the box of an Android` One device asserts ‘Always the latest version of Android’.

The Android One devices will include support for seven additional languages including Hindi and users will not have to download any external application to access their Android One smartphones in Hindi.

Devices
The smartphone vendors that Google has partnered with for the first wave of devices in India are Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice; three OEMs who lead the market in the budget smartphone segment.

The three devices announced are Spice Dream UNO Mi-498, Micromax Canvas A1, and Karbonn Sparkle V. The Spice Dream UNO and Micromax Canvas A1 are available in black and white, while the Karbonn Sparkle V is available in blue, grey, red, and white colors.

As was announced at the Google I/O event, these smartphones come with a 4.5-inch IPS display (480x854), dual SIM card slots, microSD card slot, and FM radio. Essentially, these three are same devices internally, which just differ in design and build.

Packing in a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek processor and 1 GB RAM, these devices include 4 GB of internal storage and a 1700mAh battery. The phones feature a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

Pricing
The only bullet point of the pitch that the Android One smartphones don’t keep up to is the promise of sub-$100 smartphones. In a competitive, and crowded, price segment, the devices are priced starting at ₹6399. It wasn’t a bad price at the start of this year, but now it will disappoint most.

There’s Motorola’s Moto E with stock Android and timely updates, which is sold at similar price-point with better hardware specifications. And the latest disruptor on the block, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S takes the crown with great specifications, although running an Android fork.

Google has tied up with Airtel for special data plans for Android One smartphones. Airtel customers get free access to Google services like operating system and software updates. Also, all customers get 200MB worth of apps per month for six months at no cost.

Availability
The Android One smartphones will be exclusively sold via online retails immediately, and interestingly Google has picked up three leading online retailers for three devices. Since the devices are pretty much the same, you could also make a decision based on your preference for a particular online store.

The Micromax Canvas A1 would be available on Amazon India, the Spice Dream UNO will be available on Flipkart, and the Karbonn Sparkle V will be available on Snapdeal. Google has also announced that before the festive season of Diwali next month, the devices will also be available in brick and mortar stores.

What’s Next
Android One is a big bet for Google in India, and the region is clearly the ground zero for the initiative. Google plans to expand Android One to Indonesia, Philippines, and other South Asian countries by the end of 2014 and in more countries in 2015. In India, more devices will follow in coming months in price bands above and below the latest range.

At the event, Google also announced the next set of partners for the Android One initiative. These include Qualcomm, and OEMs like Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, HTC, Lenovo, Panasonic, XOLO, Lava, Intex, and Asus. Glaring omissions from the list are Samsung and LG.