Android One Is Making A Comeback… In India

• Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL is pushing its $100 Android One smartphone in India yet again.
• The Android One smartphone is generally considered to be a flop with only 1.2 million handsets shipped last year.
• Alphabet revamped its strategy and hopes to sell its device to the "next five billion" users.

Alphabet, parent company of Google, released its $100 smartphone device last year with the hopes of attracting the "next five billion" people that do not already own a smartphone. Google hoped that its Android One smartphone device that is substantially cheaper than high-end devices would attract billions of customers worldwide, especially in emerging markets. The strategy was simple enough: release a high-quality, compelling smartphone that ran the latest version of Android and is reasonably priced. However, the launch was considered to be a flop as the company only shipped 1.2 million devices throughout 2014. Alphabet Is Trying Again Undeterred from a poor start, Alphabet is hoping its Android One will make a comeback. The company has partnered with Lava, an Indian phone manufacturer, in hopes of placing a smartphone in the hands of the "next five billion" users. As noted by Tech Times, Alphabet may have made some miscalculations in its first attempt. Smartphone manufacturers found it difficult working with Alphabet's mandated spec sheet and could only secure components from a small list of suppliers. The Wall Street Journal quoted Kirt McMaster, an executive at Cyanogen, a startup that runs an alternative Android operating system and has knowledge of the Indian market as saying: "Google tried to define too many parameters in regard to device components that were required for Android One, when Indian manufacturers really value supply chain flexibility." If an Indian smartphone maker could have saved $1 by using a different supplier, Alphabet wouldn't allow it to do so. This time around, Alphabet is doing things differently. Tech Times noted that Alphabet is offering manufactures greater flexibility in how it chooses its suppliers. As an example, Lava can now chose from at least five camera suppliers, rather than just one supplier as has been the standard in the past. Alphabet is also allowing manufactures to use Qualcomm's processors and not just those from MediaTek that were the prior standard in the Android One. The statistics appear to be in Alphabet's favor. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Android's platform attracted 400 million users since May 2014 with much of the growth being fuelled by developing countries. Meanwhile, only about 10 percent of India's more than 900 million cellphone users have a smartphone device.