There’s no denying that Android OS has seen a dramatic growth the last two years. And the next year looks to be even better for Google’s new OS. New In-Stat (www.in-stat) research forecasts that low-cost Android handsets will reach a penetration rate of 80% of total smartphones in Africa, India, and China by 2015. Low-cost refers to Android devices at $150 and less.
The low-cost Android smartphone segment is comprised primarily of smartphones released with Android 2.2 or 2.3, since these versions are a good blend of features with modest memory and processor usage. An estimated 340 million such Android-based smartphones are predicted to ship in 2015.
Some other findings from In-Stat’s report include:
- The low-end low-cost smartphones generally stick with EDGE and processors running at 600MHz speeds or less, and a single-core EDGE chip sells for well under $10.
- Smaller phone manufacturers will sometimes purchase from the “gray market” where component manufacturers typically don’t pay licensee fees, royalties, and taxes for the products they produce.
- Early competitors in the market include Huawei, MicroMax, Motorola, Samsung, Spice, and ZTE.
About Android OS.
Android was the brainchild of of Andy Rubin and Rich Miner back in 2003 eventually sold to to Google for $50 million. Android was officially released in 2007 when Google announced plans to launch the Android mobile platform. Today, Rubin is the director of mobile platforms and Miner the group manager, both are at Google.
