The Android-powered phones we are seeing with touch screens and AMOLED displays are more of a luxury if you have seen the first Android phone. This infant Android phone is a clunky little phone which looked more like a Blackberry phone than current generation phones or the first HTC Android phone.
When Google launched its first commercial version, the phone didn’t have the keyboard and lost most of its ugliness. Since then umpteen Android phones were released by several manufacturers which more or less tried to look like an iPhone.
No wonder Steve Jobs wanted to go thermo-nuclear on Android.
There is just one thought though. What happens if Google makes this version available for low-cost phone manufacturers? Would it be useful and probably make the feature phones smarter?
On the first thought it sounds like a brilliant idea to bring the smartphone prices even down. A light-weight Smartphone OS for feature phones could bring in a lot of standardization and probably the ability to download apps on feature phones. There would be even more low-cost handset manufacturers who can now plug-in an OS on their Shenzen made device.
Though a neat idea, it has very little chance to fly. The difference between smartphones and feature phones is blurring. Feature phones which come as cheap as Rs. 3000 are equipped with popular apps, messaging and EMail. Karbonn just recently announced that it will launch its own messaging app. Even if someone releases a light-weight Smartphone OS, there could be few takers. What do you think?
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