After dominating the Indian smartphone market with close to 95 per cent of all devices running on its Android operating system, technology giant Google is now looking at capturing the country’s low-cost feature phone space. The Mountain View, California headquartered company has led a $22 million investment in Hong Kong-based KaiOS Technologies Inc., the maker of Kai operating system which powers feature phones of leading brands in India such as Micromax, Nokia (HMD Global makes Nokia phones) and Reliance Jio among other. While India is home to the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world, the size of its feature phone market continues to be just as large. The investment from Google is in line with its Next Billion Users initiative that looks at connecting and serving new Internet users or those for whom it is still hard to get online. It will also help Google gets its apps and services such as Google Assistant, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Search onto feature phones. “We want to ensure that Google apps and services are available to everyone, whether they are using desktops, smartphones, or feature phones,” Anjali Joshi, Vice-President, Product Management, Next Billion Users, said in a statement. “Following the success of the JioPhones, we are excited to work with KaiOS to further improve access to information for feature phone users around the world.”
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