Telecom giant, Airtel and Technological giant, Google have confirmed to have partnered for launching new products in India. Although these new products are low-cost 4G smartphones powered by Android Go, we can see more products. Also, they will be running Android Go edition. Lava and Micromax will be bringing in the first set of devices. However, these smartphones will also have some of the Airtel's apps preloaded. These include MyAirtel App, Airtel TV and Wynk Music. From March 2018, all 4G smartphones launched under Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ program will be running Android Go Edition.
Android Go Edition
Android Go Edition is a specially tailored version of the Android Oreo. The software is customised especially to offer a smooth experience on devices with 512MB or 1GB RAM. The Android Go Edition also includes apps specially designed to run on such low powered devices. Also, these apps consume lesser data and memory. These apps include Google Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Gboard, Google Play, Chrome, and Files Go.
“This partnership is a major milestone for the ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ initiative. Android Go will provide a massive boost to our efforts to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and potentially enable hundreds of millions of feature phone users and unconnected people to get online. We are excited to collaborate with Google and our device partners to work towards this shared vision of bringing smartphones within the reach of more people”
-Vani Venkatesh, Chief Marketing Officer Bharti Airtel
Also Read: Lava Z50 Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone unveiled: Coming to India next month
“Android’s mission has always been to bring the power of computing to everyone. We’re excited to see Airtel take a leading role in that effort through introducing a range of devices powered by Android Oreo (Go edition).”
-Jon Gold, Director of Android Partnerships
With the exact specifications and price still unknown, we can still wait and hope for the best.
