Google plans revamped Android One programme

Speaking to the Financial Times, Google’s managing director for India and Southeast Asia, Rajan Anandan, said the company was committed to rebooting the initiative, which has seemingly struggled since its launch previous year.

While Google doesn’t make any of the hardware that’s sold through the Android One program the company does provide OEMs with a set of hardware standards which they have to adhere to, so in a way Google can control both the hardware and software experience of these low-cost devices. Unfortunately, despite Googles significant push on the Android One project, it never really got any traction. You create a bunch of super-low-cost smartphones, stuff them with the latest version of Android, make sure that they stay updated, and voila!

More recently, Google partnered with Lava mobile to create a more expensive Android One smartphone called the Pixel V1, which also is the first Android One device to have a large screen.

One of the issues which has crippled the success of Android One is the unavailability of decent bandwidth in the aforementioned regions. Anandan said Google wants to target the “sweet spot” in the cost conscious Indian market by launching a smartphone that costs between Rs. The project has spread to seven countries since its launch, but numbers for these other countries likely don’t look any better.

The Financial Times reports Google is expected to unveil new specifications within a few weeks, as part of an effort to increase adoption of the Android One platform in India. (The first Android One smartphones were priced at just around $100 in India.). However since launch, not a single handset has hit that mark, with some handsets like the Android One handset from General Mobile in Turkey hitting the US$260 price point – not exactly the territory that Google is aiming for.

Dropping the starting price to $50 or lower could help new Android One devices to become more competitive in India and other markets where many shoppers are looking for cheap devices.

However, despite this, even Rajan Anandan, Google’s MD for India and South Asia was quoted in the report saying that it the programme had “not lived up to expectations”, as he cited supply chain issues, with the availability of products.