In his first overseas trip since becoming CEO of Google in August, Sundar Pichai affirmed India’s importance to the global Android ecosystem. On explosive growth of smartphone usage in India. Pichai stated, “In 2016, there will be more Android users in India than the US.”
Google introduced Android One back in 2014 to capitalize on this explosive growth in emerging economies such as India. The company’s goal was to develop super affordable, yet smooth-working phones which would receive timely updates straight from Google. Just like the Nexus line is a way for Google to move the high-end of the Android ecosystem towards Google’s vision, the Android One program is a way to move the faster growing affordable segment of the market in line with Google.
In light of troubling sales numbers for Android One products, Pichai also is using this to reaffirm potential buyers that Android One is here to stay, and a possible change of strategy could be in order. From September of 2014-September 2015 only 1.2 million Android One devices were sold. This only accounts for 3.5% of the fastest growing segment of the smartphone market, the $50-$100 range. As a sign of a changing strategy Pichai explained that Google is now working with their Android One partners to develop new high-end but affordable Android One smartphones.
It looks like the first partner for these new high-end Android One phones will be Lava, the makers of the Lava Pixel V1. Senior vice-president of at Lava Navin Chawla stated that the company is satisfied with the sales of their first Android One phone, and has plans to release a new high-end India-assembled Android One smartphone of the first financial quarter of next year.
It is interesting to see Google now sort of changing strategies with their Android One program. It seemed like Google was trying to capture the low cost segment, with modest but great working phones. Making high-end phones is inevitably going to raise the cost of the product. It seems that with this new strategy Google will price themselves out of the low cost market, defeating the purpose of the Android One market. The thinking may be that with their failure in the low cost segment, it is time to look towards the mid-range second phone buying crowd, but who knows maybe they will use Android one for both high-end and super cheap phones.
This new high-end Android One program reminds me of the much talked about Android Silver program that was suppose to come to America which never materialized. What do you guys think, do you like the new direction of Android One? Would you like to see a high-end Google guided program like this come to other markets like Europe and America?
Source: The Economic Times
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