Google to launch Android One smartphones with MediaTek chipset

Google made an announcement about its Android One program at the recent Google I/O 2014, San Francisco, California. The company plans to launch devices powered by Android One in India first, with companies like Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. Android One has been launched to reduce the production costs of phones. The manufacturers mentioned earlier will be able to launch US$ 100 phones based on this platform. Google will handle the software part, using Android One. So phones will get firmware updates directly from Google. This is surprising because low budget phones usually don’t receive any software updates. Sundar Pichai, Android head at Google, showcased a Micromax device at the show. The Micromax Android One phone has an 11.43 cm (4.5 inch) display, FM radio, SD card slot and dual SIM slot. Google has reportedly partnered with MediaTek for chipsets to power the Android One devices. We speculate that it is MediTek’s MT6575 dual core processor that has been packed into Micromax’s Android One phone.

It is worth mentioning here that 78 per cent of the smartphones launched in Q1 of 2014 were priced around US$ 200 in India. So Google’s Android One will definitely herald major changes in this market. Google will also provide manufacturers with guidelines on hardware designs. And it has tied up with hardware component companies to provide high volume parts to manufacturers at a lower cost in order to bring out budget Android smartphones.