While smartphone penetration across the globe is booming, India seems to be emerging as a hot spot of low-cost-high-quality smartphones, with smartphone vendors rushing to the country in a big way to join the race.
“In India, only less than 10% population has access to smartphones, with a price lower than $100 or Rs 5,000, it is going to be a common man’s smartphone. That said, price alone does not drive demand. What is missing till now is education on the ground – once Google decides to sell via retail model, more on-the-ground education about AndroidOne will help promote the platform,” asserts Sanchit Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Research.
Greyhound Research also points out that Google can expect competition but none has the wherewithal like Google to be as aggressive and invest heavily in the ecosystem – Firefox and Tizen are competitions, but far from reaching critical volumes. Both, Microsoft and Apple are not eyeing this market at all, so we can safely expect Google to pretty much own this market. Eventually, AndroidOne will touch tablets as well. Google AndroidOne surely is going to end the OS fragmentation, it predicts.
The research also notes that while this launch will help increase mindshare (and marketshare) amongst consumers, a lot of these smartphones will be used in enterprises. This is a critical point given the increase in adoption of a MobileFirst and BYOD policies amongst enterprises in India. This also indicates an increased cost for enterprises to support these devices.
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