Micromax to lead the pack with Android Go

The Indian smartphone market’s numbers are still dominated by feature phones and budget smartphones — a category that Google wants to be a part of with its Android Go programme. Android Oreo Go was made available to manufacturers last month and it was promised that we will be seeing Oreo Go devices pretty soon. Now, rumours have suggested that India might see the forts Android Go device by the end of January.

According to a report from Factor Daily, we might be looking at an Android Go smartphone by 26th January, which also happens to be the Republic Day of India. While unnamed sources haven’t given out anything on the specifications front, it is known that the first Android Go smartphone will be from homegrown brand Micromax and it could come with a price tag of approximately ` 2,000. Therefore, it could be one of the few smartphones that will compete directly with fancy feature phones from established players.

However, the report also states that other Indian firms such as Intex, Lava and Karbonn will also be coming up with Android Go devices in the coming months — these brands were also the first ones to bring Android One devices to the market. However, no information on the price and avail- ability of these devices is yet known.

When Android Go was announced, Google made it clear that the OS has been optimised for phones with low- end specifications. Android Go Oreo will run on devices with less than 1GB of RAM, cheaper chipsets and 8GB of storage.