Micromax Confirms Their New Android Based OS Will Hit The Market by 2015-End; Focusing On An Eco-system Now?
Made in India brand Micromax has confirmed that they are working on their new Android based OS, which will hit the market somewhere at the end of 2015. Once completed, this new operating system can give some serious fight to other forked Android OS such as Xiaomi’s MIUI and OnePlus’s Oxygen OS.
For their YU brand of smartphones, Micromax had tied up with Cynogen for using their forked Android OS via a wholly owned subsidiary. But it seems that Micromax has some bigger, bolder plans when it comes to operating systems.
A forked Android is an OS which uses native Android open source operating system to devise their own version; which has completely new set of tools and functionality. Forked Android OS can have their own apps store as well.
On the other hand, there are brands like Samsung, Firefox which are developing and now shipping an entirely new OS which are not Android/iOS/Windows based. Although 90% of all smartphones have either Android or iOS, there is a new market of new operating systems being developed which is steadily increasing.
However, Micromax doesn’t have any plan to create an entirely new OS from scratch as they are using Android to take it to the next level.
Micromax cofounder Vikas Jain said, “We’re excellent with partnerships and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel..”
The development of this new OS is being headed by former Amazon executive Ashish Agrawal, who is now the technology head for Micromax. Their software team in Bangalore will be supported by 75 odd ex-researchers from Nokia’s R&D facility in Beijing to create stunning designs, add more apps and unique functions. It is not clear whether they will join Micromax’s facilities in Bangalore or not.
The New Eco-System
Besides selling smartphones and tablets, Micromax is right now among India’s top 5 biggest TV brands with 8% market share as they are selling around 70,000 units per month.
And within Indian smartphone market, they have captured 16.7% share, as they are selling 30 lakh phones (smart + feature) every month.
With the announcement of their new OS, it seems that Rs 11,000 crore annual revenue churning Micromax may be looking at developing an eco-system of gadgets and platform, just like Apple. Once developed, Micromax’s new OS can support their smartphones and TVs and other future products which they decide to launch. In short, this new OS will give them a solid platform to expand their portfolio without being dependent on Google or Android for customizations.
Earlier, Micromax had partnered with MoFirst to develop local language OS and apps; which actually gives us a hint of their future plans.
