Android One has initially been an initiative to bring low-cost Android phones to developing countries. However, Google has changed the addresses, making Android One a more user-focused program to bring more Android phones to market.
What was Android One: a history lesson
Android One was created as an initiative to launch functional, usable and practical devices for startup markets. It was designed as a joining of hardware and software: low-end hardware to keep costs down, combined with software maintained and updated by Google.
Google established the general hardware requirements that manufacturers would use in Android One phones, so most of the first phones featured the same basic hardware: a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core SoC, 1GB of RAM and 4GB-8GB of storage. Most first-generation One phones also had a small 480 × 854 screen resolution.
Outside of the hardware requirement, manufacturers also had to comply with specific software rules: the phones had to run Android without modifications and receive periodic security updates. But since Google controlled the updates, this last requirement was not a problem for the manufacturer.
Therefore, the general idea of Android One at the beginning was the following: low-cost phones for emerging markets that had Android stock and focused on security.
But then the idea evolved.
What is Android One now
Today, Android One is not just for emerging markets and is not limited to low-end hardware. The philosophy of the central software is still there: Android and security updates are still part of Android One phones. And, like Pixel phones, it is guaranteed that each Android One phone will receive at least two years of operating system updates. Directly from Google.
The main difference now is that manufacturers are not limited to low-end hardware and basic designs for these phones. Instead, they are free to build them as they wish, without design or hardware limitations. The Motorola Moto X4 Android One Edition is a great example here.
But as a result, that also means that the prices of these phones are no longer the devices of the budget containers that they once were. From $ 250 to $ 400 (and more), they are still more affordable than most flagship phones, but they are still much more expensive than the first One devices.
To put it in simple terms: Android One can be compared to a modern Nexus program but defined exclusively in the software. Like the Nexus phones of yesteryear, they run Android stock and Google updates them. In its early days, the Nexus program used a very similar philosophy: accessible phones maintained by Google. The main difference with Android One is that Google does not design the hardware; think of it as a more open Nexus program.
But what about low-cost phones for emerging markets?
Google did not forget what it was proposed to do with Android One, so another program was born: Android Go. Instead of having hardware requirements, Android Go focuses exclusively on the software. It is built with Android Oreo and optimized for the low-cost hardware and lost costs.
In its current state, Android Go uses a modified version of Oreo designed to work well on the most basic hardware: it’s smaller (about half the size of the “normal” Android) and faster. Google also designed a series of applications to go along with Android Go, which include YouTube Go, Files Go and many others. It’s about optimizing that hardware experience that would not otherwise work well with a standard version of Android and its primary applications.
The idea here is one that makes a lot of sense: instead of defining the maximum hardware specifications, optimizing the software to work well on low-end hardware, then let the manufacturers decide what that means. The final result will finally be solved: the first Android Go phone available in the US. UU It’s the ZTE Tempo Go for $ 80, for example. $80 for an android phone. And since the Android software has been fully optimized to run on faulty hardware, it should provide an acceptable user experience, at least.
While Android One started with a different objective, the current program is smart. Making more Android phones in existence that are updated by Google is a fantastic idea. And the birth of Android Go makes much more sense for emerging markets: a particular version of Android created only for cheaper phones is a brilliant strategy.