Google's Android One beaten by Chinese budget models

Visitors to Google's section at the CeBIT computer expo in Hanover, Germany, March 2012. (Photo/Xinhua)

Android One, a budget smartphone project initiated by Google last September, has been hindered due to the fierce competition in the budget smartphone market, especially from Chinese brands, reports Tencent's tech news web portal.

Under the project, Google has partnered with smartphone companies in developing countries. The manufacturers are responsible for hardware manufacturing and sales while Google takes charge of the preinstall and upgrade of Android system and apps. Android One smartphones are mostly priced at under US$100 and use components with a lower performance than more expensive models.

However, the price-performance ratio for Android One smartphones cannot compete with the budget smartphones put out by Chinese brands. Market research firm Counterpoint said that in the first 100 days after the project started, around 600,000 Android One smartphones were shipped out in India. In the following five months, its sales had remained the same.

Market analysts said Google didn't offer smartphone makers enough support to boost sales or market share as it developed all the software for the phone and left no space for the manufacturer to make more customized smartphones to differentiate them from their rivals. For example, many Android One users in India don't want to use the built-in GoogleNow voice service given the high internet fees in the country.

Another reason lies in the distribution channels. In India, low-income users do not shop over the internet. Yet Google didn't allow retail stores to sell Android One smartphones in India until three months after it opened sales on e-commerce platforms, which disappointed some local retailers. 

Though Android One smartphones are able to upgrade to the latest Android version the quickest among other Android phones, it will be more challenging to compete with Chinese rivals as they are all targeting the same developing markets such as India, Latin America and Southeast Asia, the report said.

Source : wantchinatimes