Android One, low-cost smartphones for emerging countries

Google aims to expand in emerging countries and does so in the smartphone sector, announcing the release of new lines of devices sold at a low cost.
Indeed, new terminal models have been presented that will fall under the “Android One“, this is the name proposed for this ambitious and competitive project.
The devices will initially be sold only in Asia and – to be more precise – only in the Indian market.
Probably other countries will follow, but the West seems entirely excluded.
The list of next countries to see the release of Android One, in fact, includes Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as markets to land the devices by the end of 2014. In the course of next year, however, exports will also reach other countries.
Details of the technical specifications of Android One are still few, but in any case, it is certain that the terminals – after being designed by Google’s dedicated staff – will be produced and assembled at the facilities of local manufacturers, such as Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice.
Individual manufacturers will certainly be able to customize the devices in some way, with Google’s authorization, of course, but apparently, the Mountain View giant has imposed the observance of minimum technical requirements and the installation of operating system versions that are not excessively customized and as close as possible to the native Android matrix.
In general, the first models will have a 4.5-inch screen and will certainly all be dual SIM.

The operating system – as just mentioned – will always be Android and the processor on which the first units will run will be a quad-core MediaTek 1.3 GHz, supported by 1 GB of RAM.
Another common base for all devices in the Android One family will be the two cameras present: the main one will be 5 megapixels, while the secondary one will be 2 megapixels.
Each model will then have unique features, but – as already said – there will be at least for the first “batch” of smartphones a common base, just mentioned.
As for the price of the new Android One, we are talking about figures that will be around a maximum of $100 – $105.