XDA focusses on Micromax and Co with new dedicated section for Indian smartphones

Android smartphones from Indian brands such as Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Xolo often get short-changed when it comes to custom ROM support, unofficial software updates and device-specific mods. All that could change soon as XDA has launched a special section dedicated for Indian smartphones. This will have forums geared towards custom ROM development for smartphones from Indian brands and other devices launched specifically for the country, such as the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.   For those not in the know, XDA is the leading website when it comes to the Android developer community and has been since the early days of the OS. As Android grew over the years, so did the developer community on XDA, and there are forums for nearly every smartphone released talking about the root methods, new ROMs, custom kernels, tips, tricks, troubleshooting, etc. If you have even remotely dabbled with custom ROMs or rooting your phone, you would be pretty familiar with the site.   In a post in the news section, XDA said that second-highest traffic source for the site is India and it wanted to recognise the work done by Indian developers and users, by creating a dedicated section for Indian phones. “Until now, we’ve admittedly done a poor job of supporting these users. We’ve never had a defined process for adding India-only devices, and when we do add them, we’ve often relegated them to our legacy/low activity template. Often non-supported device discussion gets spread throughout the general forums, which is a problem for forum organization. But more and more, Indian users are becoming valuable members of the community—contributing knowledge, know-how, and excellent development work.”   Initially, special forums have been created for select phones. Micromax heads the list with forums being made for the Canvas 4, Canvas Turbo, Canvas Magnus, Canvas Doodle & Doodle 2, and Canvas 2 Plus. Some of Lenovo’s phones will also be getting dedicated forums; the K900, A850, A3000 and P780 initially. The Xolo Q1000, Karbonn A21 and the Grand 2 round up the list for now.   Those visiting XDA exclusively for information related to these phones and any others added to the section in the future can head to the newly-created URL xda.in to see the forums. Existing forum rules apply and any feedback related to the India section can be posted on this thread.