
Android One - adidash
http://officialandroid.blogspot.com/2014/09/for-next-five-billion-android-one.html
======
NotOscarWilde
_> To help ensure a consistent experience, Android One devices will receive
the latest versions of Android directly from Google. So you’ll get all the
latest features, up-to-date security patches, and peace of mind knowing your
stuff is always backed up._

This rings a bitter note for me -- I bought a Galaxy Nexus a while after it
came out and I was really surprised how quickly Google discontinued updates
for it. Is it expected that "the next five billion" will also buy a new phone
every two years?

To quote Google:

 _> Galaxy Nexus, which first launched two years ago, falls outside of the
18-month update window when Google and others traditionally update devices._

(I still own the phone and I have the latest Android because of Cyanogenmod,
but again, this is not something that can be recommended to "the next five
billion".)

~~~
hrvbr
*Receives automatic Android updates for up to 2 years.

[http://www.android.com/one/](http://www.android.com/one/)

I guess the poor can replace their phone every two years like the rich.

~~~
fpgeek
To be fair, Android One's "up to 2 years" is a huge improvement over the
typical update policy in this price bracket: not in a million years.

~~~
kmfrk
It also happens to be the EU's consumer-warranty period.

~~~
column
hardware warranty does not mean software updates

~~~
danieldk
The EU warranty regulations say that a device should function properly for two
years. So, the scope is definitely wider than just hardware warranty.

~~~
jotm
Well, in this case, 1st/2nd generation devices do function properly with
Android 2.3/3.0 - you just can't install some apps on them...

------
tribaal
I live in Africa. When is it coming here? I'd love to have a cheap, supported
android phone.

Most affordable android phones here are "tecno" (chinese samsung knockoffs),
but it's notably hard to flash since not many people with the know-how own
any.

By the way, if you _do_ have the know-how to port i.e. cyanogenmod to a new
device please get in touch - I'll be glad to send you a few handsets, and
you'd make loads of people in developing countries a solid :)

~~~
dobbsbob
Those are all mediatek phones which they refuse to honor GPL and release the
kernel sources. I suspect Android One will be the same. You can check out the
CyanogenMod porting guide and pull the kernel and recovery settings from
boot.img, modify clockwork mod with settings you found in boot.img to get root
access then flash(most Chinese clones use fastboot to flash) CWM recovery and
run a script in the porting guide they have to yank proprietary binaries off
the device and attempt to fully port using the pre-compiled kernel you ripped
from the boot image. I did it with a Mediatek i9300 clone from Alibaba but
built and ran Replicant mod on it instead of CyanogenMod. Some things won't
work like proprietary GPS and NFC but I didn't want those anyways.

If Android One Mediatek kernel is released can use it on matching Chinese
clones unless it's some special kernel/chipset only made for Android One
device. If we are lucky and that chipset is mass produced by Alibaba
suppliers, and Google has the kernel source available we can get even cheaper
phones than the One and run better software on it.

[http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_porting_intro](http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_porting_intro)

~~~
phatak-dev
It's available now
[http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/16/android-4-4-4-kernel...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/16/android-4-4-4-kernel-
source-code-for-the-spice-micromax-and-karbonn-android-one-phones-available-
now/)

------
lnanek2
Not really a fan of Google negotiating unmetered access for Android to
cellular data like this. I think Google/Apple/BlackBerry/Windows
Phone/Xiaomi/random OEM should all have equal access to cellular data and let
the user choose.

~~~
wmf
If everybody has to pay for updates then probably nobody will update. I'm
generally in favor of net neutrality, but it does backfire at the low end.

------
janekm
It's remarkable how much of an effort they're making to hide the screen
resolution (which I suppose may vary depending on manufacturer, but doesn't
appear to be part of the required spec?). The only one I could find was for
the "KARBONN ANDROID ONE SPARKLE V BLUE" which is FWVGA 480*854 pixels.

------
lake99
Colour me skeptical. The biggest problem, as I see, with all these phones is
the obsoletion rate of software. If they had pledged to do their best to keep
the platform running on the oldest of Android phones, all those phones would
immediately be given away or sold cheaply to poor people. They don't need to
port all bells and whistles to each of their previous platforms, just the
minimum required to keep simple apps (not games, not multimedia) running
across all devices. I have a few such "obsolete" devices myself. The only
thing wrong with the hardware is that their easily replaced batteries are
dead. I'd certainly give them away if they could be of much use now.

~~~
ChrisAntaki
In my experience, older Android phones can be fairly useful. There are some
great audio recording & guitar tuning apps which work offline, making the
devices handy for capturing musical ideas. Keeping the devices in airplane
mode dramatically increases their battery life. Additionally, if you want to
bust out a dedicated charger, they can act as IP cameras. Great for watching
your motorcycle when it's parked outside in a city.

Here's a KickStarter which aims to use old Android devices to passively
collect audio in rainforests, with the aim of halting illegal logging. [1]

TLDR: If people choose to write software for these devices, they can remain
useful for a long time.

[1]
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/topherwhite/rainforest-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/topherwhite/rainforest-
connection-phones-turned-to-forest-guar)

------
shk
Feature phones are still the reality in a large swathe of rural India. Cheaper
android phones will definitely help change that situation. I wished that
android one phones came with free 2-3 months of 2G packs so that millions of
people could have their first taste of 'Internet'.

~~~
blueskin_
>millions of people could have their first taste of 'Internet'.

Eternal September 4.0?

~~~
shk
Had to lookup that reference. For others -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)

However, what events do 2.0 and 3.0 refer to?

~~~
blueskin_
It's just my rough mental approximation of how many times such a situation has
already happened (even if Usenet is to all intents and purposes dying/dead, it
still applies to the internet as a whole).

Imagine a billion people with poor to no English and no previous experience of
concepts even similar to the internet all gaining access at once.

~~~
freehunter
If people who don't speak English get onto the Internet in droves, I would
imagine they would flock to sites catering to their language, until the point
where they learn enough English to join the English speaking parts (assuming
they have interest in learning English, which they may not).

The Internet does have sites dedicated to other languages. I frequent
reddit.com/r/de, which is reddit but completely in German.

~~~
GFischer
I agree, but they probably won't go to Reddit :)

In Argentina and Uruguay we have some local communities, such as Taringa!
(spanish-language community)

There's probably one or several equivalents in the locals' language :)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taringa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taringa)!

See also:

[http://www.wired.com/2012/02/st_internetoutliers/](http://www.wired.com/2012/02/st_internetoutliers/)

And, it is a pretty interesting opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs :) (and
Indonesians, Pakistanis, etc :) ).

Edit: what would be the Indian, Pakistani, Indonesian equivalents of those
sites?

------
JVIDEL
Believe it or not the biggest barrier to adoption in those countries is not
income per se as the middle class has been growing for over a decade, but
trade barriers and import tariffs that make even the cheapest phone
ridiculously expensive by western standards.

Compare the prices of some Chinese android phones in their home market with
the prices in India. A Gionee model that went for around $230 in China sells
for nearly $400 in India, almost twice the price. And is not as if the Chinese
don't pay any taxes.

~~~
ishansharma
India is a strange place in regards to pricing! I have no idea how Apple
manufactures iPhone in China, sells it for $650 in US but will sell same one
for ~$900 here.

They are saving transportation costs as we are right next to China. Maybe I'm
missing something important but I will never get the logic of this kind of
pricing.

~~~
eitally
Import duties. Just compare Brazil against most other countries, too. 100%
import tax on most things.

------
anilgulecha
The three phones are:

* [http://www.flipkart.com/spice-android-one-dream-uno-mi-498/p...](http://www.flipkart.com/spice-android-one-dream-uno-mi-498/p/itmdzuakgnatgyzs)

* [http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00NEFFWF6](http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00NEFFWF6)?

* [http://www.snapdeal.com/product/karbonn-android-one-blue/193...](http://www.snapdeal.com/product/karbonn-android-one-blue/1938355391)

Almost the exact same specs on all three phones.

------
blueskin_
>lots of processing power

>expandable storage

>dual SIM cards

>replaceable battery

I wish we could get a phone like that in the first world...

Shame the One's specs are actually very weak...[1]

[1][http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-one-smartphones-launched-
pr...](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-one-smartphones-launched-price-specs-
where-buy-much-more-1465482) \- TBFH google should be hit for false
advertising calling that CPU/memory combo 'lots of processing power'. Lots in
2003, maybe.

~~~
matt_heimer
> I wish we could get a phone like that in the first world...

I just picked up a LG Optimus L90-D415 (refurb) direct from Tmobile for $80.
The non-refurb is $100.

4.7 qHD (960 x 540) IPS Display 2,460 mAh battery 1.2Ghz Quad Core CPU -
Snapdragon 400 Cortex A7 Adreno 305 GPU 1GB RAM 8GB storage (with microSD
slot) KitKat (4.4.2) 5 megapixel rear camera, 0.3 megapixel front

I added a 32GB sd card, I wish you could default apps to installing to sd
instead of having to move them (and a couple apps don't move). Really the only
bad things are:

a) no soft buttons, and the hard buttons aren't lit. b) no ambient light
sensor. by default there is a setting to adjust brightness as specific times
(which sucks). But a $3 app (Lux) corrects the problem by using the front
camera when you unlock the phone.

~~~
blueskin_
>no soft buttons, and the hard buttons aren't lit

Sounds like a massive plus to me. I hate onscreen buttons; a phone that has
them has about the same negative added from that as it has from not having an
SD card. Sometimes I play games, or use a terminal, and don't want to have my
hand accidentally brush a button to close it.

The display is a bit small (Samsung Galaxy size is perfect; anything below is
too small and above gets unwieldy) and the cpu/memory a bit weak, but I guess
it's good to know in case Samsung ever stop making good phones.

------
blisterpeanuts
Expandable memory and changeable batteries--these are features Google's been
removing from its flagship Nexus phones, much to the consternation of those
like myself who want modularity, flexibility, and open design. FM radio would
be nice to have, as well. "Everything is in the Cloud" is a pipe dream. One
can only hope that this South Asia phone is a worldwide trend and not just a
concession to 3rd world shortages of data connections.

~~~
jarek
I was pretty surprised at microSD. Here I was, in the first world, being told
that the reason microSD is being dropped from Nexus devices is that it's too
difficult for software to support and users to understand. I'm a bit jealous,
I could have skipped shelling out $50 for 16 GB of flash worth $5.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Android 4.4 has an entirely new external storage API, so with that, it appears
that Google has now given their blessing back to microSD. IOW, I wouldn't be
surprised if the Nexus 6 had microSD.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
That is good news. 128GB microSD cards are around $100 currently, a shame that
Nexus owners can't take advantage of these great storage options.

Data connections are getting more expensive, at least in the U.S., so the
consumer needs to have the option of using local storage.

------
fidotron
The most interesting thing is to see the presence of micro-SD cards, and the
tacit acknowledgement that a lot of the world actually needs this kind of
thing as the network isn't good enough. Let's hope this means the Nexus line
get that.

~~~
blueskin_
Agreed. I only ever buy phones with SD cards, because:

* Streaming wastes battery

* Streaming wastes data usage

* Streaming costs money; especially stupid when I already own my music and don't like renting data

* Streaming is useless when a car/train is in a tunnel, when on a plane, or when just out of signal

* Most streaming services lack breadth (not enough bands) and/or depth (only having a small selection of music per band) of good music

* I don't trust streaming providers with my privacy

------
diminish
FirefoxOS has a better price point, and has an opportunity, of course hard job
against the Goliaths.

~~~
ChrisAntaki
FirefoxOS would be able to compete more effectively if it were installable on
higher end devices.

~~~
byoung2
What prevents it from being installed on high end devices?

~~~
blueskin_
Nobody wanting it.

Android has the smartphone market for people who want a device with
customisability/moddability, good software support and options for hardware
and the flexibility and power of having an accessible Linux system behind the
scenes, while the iphone has the locked down walled garden "make all my
decisions for me" market.

~~~
frewsxcv
This. Competition is stupid. There should be only one viable option.

~~~
zz1
Could you please wave your sarcasm sign? I won't understand that you are
joking, otherwise. Because you're joking, right?

~~~
frewsxcv
Yes, forgot my <sarcasm> tags

------
ccozan
I am suprised they don't mention the Motorola E ( or even G ). They also count
towards budget phones and are already selling very good in India.

~~~
Retric
For really cheap phones it's hard to beat the used market.

Edit: A 2 year upgrade cycle on an original iPhone released in January 9, 2007
means people have replaced it 3 times. Toss in broken screens, work phones etc
and you quickly get into the 100 million range.

~~~
someperson
Remember the used market is only workable in countries with enough previous
purchase history over a long enough period, most developing economies don't
reach that point for quite a few years longer than developed countries for a
given technology.

~~~
Retric
Cellphones are easy to ship. Hell, used cars are resold people in developing
countries all the time.

[http://www.economist.com/node/719514](http://www.economist.com/node/719514)

------
sirkneeland
This will nip in the bud whatever traction Microsoft was getting in India with
Windows Phone.

Between this and losing the Nokia name, it's difficult to see why many Indian
consumers would opt for a "Microsoft Lumia" over one of these high quality low
cost devices that come with the vastly richer Android ecosystem.

------
shawn-butler
I swear I've heard this messaging before...

[http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/02/11/mobile-phones-
the-...](http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/02/11/mobile-phones-the-next-
billion/)

~~~
kristianc
Really brings home the weirdness of Microsoft's strategy with Nokia.

Instead of selling some Windows Phone in developed markets and lots of Series
40 in developing markets, they've ended up selling next to none in either.

------
memossy
The specs for these phones are basically somewhere between that of the Moto E
and Moto G with removable battery. No reason it shouldn't be below $50 in a
few years.

------
vamur
The price isn't bad but you can already get slightly worse Android phones for
$70 in Russia, and cheaper in China.

------
SoulMan
Why wouldn't one buy Moto E instead ?

------
sandGorgon
does anyone know if Google will release source for Android One phones to the
same level as Nexus ? I have heard that Mediatek is notoriously closed source,
so I'm wondering how this works out for the community/cyanogenmod at large

------
arc_of_descent
Most of rural India does not even have electricity. I wonder how they are
going to charge their Android Ones.

~~~
tim333
Apparently 70% of India has electricity. I imagine the smartphone will sell
mostly to those who have it. Though off the grid I guess they could get a
solar charger in principle.

~~~
Tloewald
70% of physical area or people? I'm finding it hard to get good stats. If 70%
of people then that means almost no rural coverage.

~~~
tim333
I was thinking 70% of people. That figure is actually my guestimate based on:

"In December 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens had no access to frequent
electricity. Over one third of India's rural population lacked electricity, as
did 6% of the urban population." (Wikipedia)

Checking 2011 article "The rural-urban distribution is 68.84 per cent and
31.16 per cent respectively" (The Hindu)

Multiplying those by 1/3 and 6%, that would make it 75% had electricity around
2011 and presumably a bit more now.

------
nomercy400
Isn't 'One' a protected trademark in the mobile (android) phone world?

------
jusben1369
Fascinating. Barely noticed in the enthusiasm around the Apple Watch and Pay
was the fact that Apple discontinued the idea of a "cheap" iPhone as a unique
product. Apple will be the brand of the elite via $350 watches and Android
wants to be the product of the masses.

------
Istof
Android Zero would be great too where you would only get security updates.

------
grizzles
Is it flashable? Hope so.

------
jokoon
apart from the moto e, what other cheap smartphones are already available in
the west ?

I don't have a smartphone, but I don't want to spend a lot on one.

~~~
johnchristopher
Some Lumia hit the 99euros or 99$ price tag and are quite decent.

~~~
bruceb
The 520/1 are regularly on sale for $59 and less no with no contract

------
tkubacki
Your move Microsoft. If not now then when ?

------
hauget
anyone know who shot the ad/video for Android One?

------
bruceb
Apparently Android one is for people under 40 only. (judging by the video)

------
hauget
anyone know who shot the ad/video for this?

------
moeedm
Hey, looks like Apple had the right idea all along! Who knew?

~~~
seanflyon
What idea is that? Apple has been very successful with the high end of the
market, which seems significantly different from Android One.

------
zz1
No thanks Google: the next five billion already have Firefox OS.

~~~
shk
Firefox os phones are not even available widely in retail stores in Indian
tier 2 and 3 cities. Android ones on the other hand I hope will be available
in remote corners as well.

~~~
zz1
They're not because they sold out on launch day. They are coming.

~~~
shk
That's true they sold out. However, I feel they will never be manufactured in
numbers compared to android one initiative for India (I hope they do though).
Probably numbering few millions at best, which is a drop in bucket for the
huge population.

~~~
zz1
> However, I feel they will never be manufactured in numbers compared to
> android one initiative for India

Let's change that! Ask for Firefox OS phones and tell people about that: they
are cheaper than Android, offer better performances and better long-term
support.

------
eevilspock
YES! Let's get the next five billion messaging, emailing and browsing through
the systems of one company. This will be great for freedom, privacy and
competition!

------
aw3c2
Plaintext for people who browse with Javascript disabled: [http://tj-markdown-
paste.herokuapp.com/posts/504698](http://tj-markdown-
paste.herokuapp.com/posts/504698)

~~~
sjaaktrekhaak
Does not work; "Couldn't find Post with id=504698"

~~~
aw3c2
Huh! Sounds like a site I will never bother to use again. Here you go
[http://pastebin.com/C2M5Ep5Q](http://pastebin.com/C2M5Ep5Q)

------
fdsary
So it's a high-quality android phone for $250? That's pretty freaking cool :).
Open source, yay! Even if it's a NSA phone.

~~~
bildung
$250 is the monthly income bracket they target, the phone itself is on sale
for Rs 6400, which is about $100.

