Google affiliate partners, Micromax, Karbonn and Spice have begun to tease the Android One devices ahead of the launch on 15 September.
All three have inked pact with different online stores – Amazon India, Snapdeal and Flipkart to retail their respective Android One devices.
Micromax's graphic teaser shows-off the rear-side (Top left) with a large circular camera module, which is very similar to the one, Sundar Pichai showcased in his presentation at Google I/O 2014. It is very identical to Nexus 5 rear-side camera; however, given the $100 price-tag of Android One, the specification will be far less superior to the former.
As seen in the above post, the company will release the phone tomorrow afternoon, 3:30pm at Amazon India.
Bengaluru-based Karbonn Mobiles and its retail partner, Snapdeal, too have released a graphic poster with a tag – "No Have?". This cryptic phrase hints the company's phone will users best Android experience, given the fact the device will ship with stock OS with no irritating custom UI (or bloatwares). Official partner, Snapdeal has already kicked-off the countdown for Karbonn Android One device release [HERE].
Google's third domestic OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) partner, Spice has released a poster that the Android One will go on sale at exclusively at 3:30pm on 15 September via Flipkart. But the e-commerce jumped the gun by listing the device on its website, revealing its official name, specifications and price details.
Though the webpage was taken down immediately, many blogs had taken screen-shot by the time it was taken-off the internet. Spice Android One sports a 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS LCD screen and comes packed with stock Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS out-of-the-box.
Under the hood, it houses 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core CPU, Mali-400 MP GPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB inbuilt memory and a 1,700 mAh battery. [More Information, HERE]
All smartphone makers are slated to release the Android One series devices at same time on 3:30pm IST afternoon, and going by the speculated specifications of these devices, many are expecting similar virtual stampede at online stores, we see in the Xiaomi smartphone flash sales.
The search engine giant, Google has strategically chosen the Indian market to tap the price-conscious middle class working population and vast aspiring youth population (comprised of more than 65% of the total Indian population).
The potential for future growth in the Indian smartphone market is very promising considering that the 71% of the market continues to be on feature phones and the domestic smartphone market witnessed a record 84-percent year-on-year growth in Q2 over the last year, said market watch-dog, IDC (International Data Corporation)
[Note: India is the fastest and the third biggest smartphone market in the world, it is behind USA, which is led by China].
It has to be noted that Android One project, not only expected to sway more users towards Google, but also give a much-needed boost to Micromax and Karbonn to lessen the gap between the leader, Samsung which stands on top with 17% market share, while there placed second (14%) and fourth position (with 9%) respectively.
MNC brands Motorola and Xiaomi invasion into the budget smartphone space caught many domestic vendors by surprise early this year, but now the Android One project is expected to put local players back into the driver seat. All-in-all, the ultimate winner will be the Indian consumers, who will be spoilt for choices with the flooding of low-priced feature-rich smartphones this month.
