Earlier in this month, an Indian publication had revealed that Micromax will be launching the first Android Go (Oreo edition) smartphone in this month. Fresh information suggests that the Micromax Bharat Go will be unveiled by the end of this month.
As of this writing, there is no information available on the specifications of the Micromax Bharat Go entry-level smartphone. Rumors have it that it would be priced around Rs. 2,000 (~$30). Speculations are rife that the smartphone would be launched around India’s Republic Day (Jan. 26).
Google had unveiled Android Go in May 2017 during the I/O 2017 event. It is a customized version of the Android OS that is designed to run on low-end smartphones featuring as low as 512 MB of RAM. Such smartphones will be aimed towards emerging markets. Two of the major chipset makers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek have confirmed that they will be supporting Android Go.
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The search engine giant had confirmed in the previous month that the Android Go will be based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Smartphones running on Android Go will be featuring toned-down version of apps for Play Store, Google Go, Gmail Go, YouTube Go, Maps Go, Google Assistant Go and so on.
Indian smartphone makers have lost their market share in India thanks to increased popularity of smartphones from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo. Android Go is expected to allow Indian smartphone manufacturers to regain their market share in the country. After Micromax, other Indian brands such as Lava, Karbonn and Intex are also expected to release Android Go smartphones.
In March, HMD Global is expected to debut the Android Go driven Nokia 1 smartphone. Also, Huawei is also rumored to be working on an Android Go handset.
