For the past few months, we’ve been tracking developments in Chrome that point to Android becoming a competitor to KaiOS by entering the feature phone market. Today, the first purported image of an Android feature phone has come to light, with Nokia stylings.
Thus far, everything we’ve learned about the likelihood of Android coming to feature phones has come from tidbits within public Chrome code. From the code, we know that Android feature phones will be distinctly different from Android Go, as the feature phones will not have a touchscreen. Instead, the phones will be navigated using a traditional d-pad, shoulder buttons, and the number keys.
Feature phones are far from dead, and it seems Google really wants a piece of this pie. KaiOS is kind of an unsung hero here in the west, but it’s quite popular on feature phones all over the world.
Part of me says it’s a good merging of constrained interfaces, The d-pad and shoulders get the job done; the Latin-1 text input is basically good enough.
The other part of me says “it’s Android, so it’s Google. Don’t you dare.”
I had almost exactly the same thoughts. Five years ago, I might have leaned toward the first idea. But these days, the second thought wins, hands down.
Why?
Why would I want a resource hungry OS mired with security issues on my feature phone?
Why would I want to be tracked by Google and god knows what government through my feature phone?
What’s in it for me?
With the ordinary smart phones, there are some benefits, some usability advantages to convince the user.
A feature phone does not and is not expected to have them. So why should it be burdened by 8 GB of android clutter?
Google’s charging scheme for Android without search or Play services in the EU suggests it’s willing to pay up to $40 per handset (according to the Verge) in exchange for tracking and a cut of every app purchase. The value might not be so high on a feature phone, but based on this it’s not inconceivable that Google could swallow the entire cost of a feature phone and hand them out for free. That’s at least one thing that would be in it for end users.
I don’t know what the licensing costs are for KaiOS, but if I had to guess I’d say they were greater than 0 rather than less than 0.
Uhh… the article you quoted actually says the device manufacturer (read owner) will pay TO Google, not the other way around.
Yes, sorry, I wasn’t clear in my explanation. The charge is for Google’s apps, but only if the device manufacturer chooses not to install Chrome and Search. The cost is less (possibly waived) if Google can collect search data and advertise to the user. My inference is that the difference is the value Google places on the ability to track and advertise.
Because modern featurephone requirements have shifted. People want WhatsApp, they want facebook/twitter as a minimum. Back in the day BBM was a featurephone killer app, now is non existent on that format.
KaiOS have picked up on this and won the market as a result, especially in India.
It seems to me that it might be time to split the “feature phone” into two segments.
Many people do want the features you mention, but others still want a “dumb phone”. In the latter category are the privacy-conscious (myself included), children, etc.
The thing that surprises me is that Google are a big investor in KaiOS (one of only four; having invested $22m out of $79m total investment according to crunchbase. Android on featurephones would seem to be undermining that investment.
22m is also a rounding error for them. And you could argue it’s done its job. KaiOS has proven there is a market, now it’s time to bring over the big boys
Yes, a fair point, and I guess it’s not too dissimilar to the relationship between Google and Mozilla.
VERY good example. Also, following Microsoft’s example with Apple, keeping competition in the market, even in a weakened state, keeps the Anti-Comp regulators away
flypig,
That’s the difference between small companies with limited resources, and huge companies like google that have more money than they have a need for. Instead of investing strategically and taking steps to defend those investments, google can afford to hedge their bets by owning a piece of everything so that they’ll win regardless of the outcome. I think your mozilla example is relevant here. Google’s learned it’s lesson with youtube where it tried and failed to compete with it’s own platform before having to shell out billions to buy youtube later. So given that millions is chump change to google, why wouldn’t they acquire stock in KaiOS rather than have to compete with it down the line? If KaiOS is successful, great. If android wins instead, google can be happy either way.
As you have probably guessed, I think it’s dangerous to concentrate the means of production into the control of a few ultra-powerful corporations, but speaking in terms of google’s perspective, I think it makes sense.
Great, just great… Now spec dumps will matter in feature phones too. Prepare for people to start comparing CPU benchmark and RAM sizes in feature phones. I don’t trust Google to produce slim software and keep it that way, after seeing how my Moto360 2nd gen performs, so hardware will once again need to be beefed up. Let’s not forget Android became tolerable only after the first “mega-phones” from HTC and Samsung happened.
And you know Google will use their carrier contacts and ecosystem to push their OS.
There are already feature phones running modified versions of Android: ZTE Cymbal, LG Exalt LTE, and various ones from Kyocera and Sonim.