Android for The Common Man

R.K. Laxman’s ‘The Common Man’ has been around watching India grow since her post Independence days and his never wavering gaze at the state of the country’s economy and harsh realities juxtapose daily living in this smorgasbord of cultures called India. Any technology that is open and allows more myriad transformations into various forms is warmly embraced in this part of the world since that flexibility allows it to filter down to the lower stratas of society. And so it is with Android as it is now being embraced by various manufacturers to power their low-cost phones.

The Huawei IDEOS Android 2.2 smart phone, already available in Europe and the US, will be launched in India as an affordable smart phone before the end of this year. Equipped with the Android 2.2 platform, IDEOS aims to bring an interactive experience and with the ability to serve as a mobile hotspot.

IDEOS offers prolific use and sharing of the newly opened 3G bandwidth in India. Huawei recently announced the new X5 and X6. No, they are not state of the art BMWs, but smart phones that will bring the power of mobile computing to the masses of India. The IDEOS was initially showcased at India Telecom 2010 where the company confirmed it would introduce it at a cost of less than Rs. 8,000 ($178) which will not be the cheapest Android smart phone available to Indian customers, but definitely offer the common man a choice - the one thing that can be truly deemed as a luxury.

Even Google is now targeting developing countries like India, which has 670 million cellphone subscribers and has been adding about 18 million a month recently. Micromax has also released its first Android handset and wants to have at least four Android phones by March. Samsung’s Galaxy 5, Spice, Videocon Evolve, LG Optimus, HTC Wildfire, Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 and Mini and Motorola BackFlip are some of the other phones competing for the attention of the Common Man. Google has been helping Indian firms integrate Android into their handsets and develop applications that will appeal to Indians and therefore it has encouraged the inclusion of Bollywood film and local media content.