Micromax Informatics to develop forked Android OS, says report

The Micromax OS will be a fork of Android and will feature the Android operating system in its core.

Following the footsteps of Samsung, Xiaomi and others, Homegrown company Micromax has made a decision to develop its own OS across platforms along with host of services and apps that will work across smartphones, TVs, tablets and wearables.

Worldwide Android handset makers seem to be finding that consumers want something different other than Google’s version of Android. The new system will be developed under the freshly appointed CTO Ashish Agarwal, a former Amazon executive and according to him, it will cater to the needs of Indian consumers like Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi have done internationally through their customised OS.

Micromax has its software development team in Bangalore, with about 75 people acquired from Nokia’s R&D in Beijing and some from Shenzen to support this venture.

Jain also mentions that the first smartphone coming with the new OS will be available as soon as the end of this year.

As of now, the Micromax sits comfortably in the 2nd position which closed its fiscal 2015 with Rs 11,000 crore of revenue on the smartphones segment and 3rd in the tablet arena with 9% share for the quarter ended March 2015. As hardware is becoming a commodity, Micromax wants to start investing in software to differentiate itself. In addition to the operating system, Micromax will also develop a wide variety of applications to run on their new OS platform. The company believes that it is closer to Indian audiences and has a better understanding of the local market. However, the company is reliant on compatibility with Android apps to remain competitive and so as not to alienate its existing customers, so is building some of its own software into Android rather than creating an OS from the ground up.