Micromax is developing its own Android-based OS for future smartphones and devices

India’s Micromax is currently developing its own forked version of Android for future smartphones and devices. The operating system will reportedly work across platforms such as wearables, televisions and tablets. Micromax co-founder, Vikas Jain, told The Economic Times that the first smartphones with the new operating system will be available by the end of this financial year and will be affordably priced.

International Android smartphone manufacturers seem to be finding that consumers want something different other than Google’s pure version of Android. Manufactures such as Xiaomi, Samsung and Microsoft have already developed their own operating systems to differentiate themselves from the competition, and Mircomax plans to follow the same path.

“We’re excellent with partnerships and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” Jain said, while specifying that the company was not breaking away from Android but was working with the globally dominant Android OS to bring a differentiated experience to consumers across all platforms, including wearables.  

“Our (Indian) use cases are much different from a US or Chinese customer,” he said. As hardware is becoming a commodity, Micromax wants to start investing in software to differentiate itself. However, the company did not want to alienate its set of consumers and developers, majority of who are on Android, by building an operating system from the ground up. 

Micromax feels it is closer to the Indian consumer and has a better understanding of the local market. The company wants to stay in the Android ecosystem to prevent itself from alienating its set of customers and developers. The operating system is currently being developed by the company’ s software team in Bengaluru. According to the report, about 75 people from Nokia’s R&D have been acquired to support this project.

Source: The Economic Times

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