We had learnt about Google Android One project at IO this year and today in India we witnessed the global launch which took place in New Delhi. Partnering with three Indian manufacturer brands, namely Micromax, Karbonn and Spice Google has launched three different phones under the same price segment.
For those who don’t know, Android One is the project initiated by Google which was announced this year at Google IO 2014. This project aims at developing high quality mobile experience at really affordable costs making it perfectly suitable for developing markets like India. Smartphones gaining its popularity across nations, it has seen a huge growth in demand in the last 2-3 years. Understanding the same, Google initiated this project and looking at the concept we strongly feel it will work. Android One which is a different stream of the Android operating system works on a fixed reference design and guarantees direct involvement from Google.
Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V and Spice Dream Uno are the three handsets launched today priced at Rs. 6,399. The specifications of the smartphones are mentioned as below:
- 4.5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) IPS display
- 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with Mali-400 GPU (MediaTek MT6582)
- 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory, 32GB expandable memory option
- Android 4.4 KitKat
- Dual SIM
- 5MP rear camera with LED flash and 2MP front-facing camera
- 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- Built-in FM Radio
- 1700 mAh battery
All the handsets come with a data bundle offer from Airtel of free 200MB data every month for Android apps and OS updates for the first six months. At the launch, Sundar Pichai, Google Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome & Apps announced few more hardware partners which shall be joining the initiative including Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, and Xolo, as well as chipmaker Qualcomm. Google also unveiled that Android One phones will launch in Indonesia, the Philippines, and additional countries in South Asia by the end of the year.
