Google to launch Android One

Google’s new Android One low-cost platform has been launched in India, and will be rolled out to other countries in coming months.

At today’s launch of Android One, Google’s head of Android Sundar Pichai announced the arrival of the first Android One handsets, costs roughly $100. He also confirmed that, along with India, the next markets to get Android One powered devices later this year will be Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. More as-yet-unnamed markets will follow in 2015, said Pichai.

Device and component manufacturers that have signed up to use Android One include Acer, Alcatel, Asus, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, Xolo, and chipmaker Qualcomm.

“We expect to see even more high-quality, affordable devices with different screen sizes, colors, hardware configurations and customized software experiences,” Pichai said in a blog post.

Smartphones that went on sale in India today are the Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream Uno and Karbonn Sparkle V, which are all priced around the $100 mark (6,000 to 7,000 rupees).

Each of them have a 4.5 inch display at 854 x 480 pixels, dual SIM support and run a stock version of Android 4.4. They run a 1.3GHz quad-core processor from Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek, and have 1GB of RAM, 4GB storage, FB radio, microSD expandable storage as well as a front-facing two-megapixel camera and rear-facing five-megapixel camera.

All of the devices will get Android L when it’s released in coming months.