Google looking to launch Android One smartphones under Rs 3000 in India: Report

Update: According to an email from a Google representative, “the Financial Times has misquoted Ranjan. The revised story is now online and what Rajan says is that “Google is looking to launch a $50 phone  in the next few years.” As you are aware a new Android One  phone was just launched by Lava (in the mid-range category). Google has plans to revamp the Android One platform in India. The company reportedly plans to launch a sub-Rs 3,000 Android device as a part of Google’s massive investment push into India’s internet market. In conversation with the Financial Times, Rajan Anandan, Google Managing Director, India and Southeast Asia stated that, “the much-hyped mobile standard has “not delivered to expectations” but has plans for a reboot which would be revealed in “the next few years”. In addition, Rajan Anandan also said that he wants to target the “sweet spot” in India’s cost-conscious smartphone market by launching a device that is priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000. According to the report, Google faces challenges in India. For example, Google’s product YouTube and Maps require fast connections to work effectively on mobile devices yet, the country is marked by slow bandwidth. “There are several battlegrounds where we are not winning [and] local search is clearly the one where it’s most apparent,” Rajan Anandan said to the Financial Times, noting competition from a Mumbai-listed Indian search start-up called JustDial. “Strategically it [India] is very, very important. Don’t get me wrong, the revenue is interesting but… we’re here really because 10 years from now a billion Indians will be online and when we have a billion Indians online we think that’s going to make a huge difference to the global internet economy.” Google unveiled the  **Android One initiative** last year with three smartphones. India hasn’t seen an explosive growth as far as Android One handsets are concerned, and this ‘zero rating’ data usage for some applications might just improve the situation. Zero rating data usage means that certain apps will not be charged any data rates in your monthly bill cycle and it will not consume any data from data-plans which you may have purchased.