Google has partnered with Indian OEMs like Intex, Lava, Karbonn and Micromax to launch cheap $30 Android Go smartphones in the country. Micromax will likely be the first Indian OEM to launch its Android Oreo Go smartphone priced at around Rs 2,000 in January, with other OEMs to follow.

The Micromax smartphone launch is expected to take place around the Republic Day as per a source of Factor Daily. Android Oreo Go Edition is Google’s revamped effort to capture the sub-$100 smartphone market in India. The company previously tried capturing the market with its Android One devices but they failed to make a mark despite repeated attempts. This time around, Google is relying on its Android Oreo (Go edition) to get the job done.

The move will also help Indian OEMs who have lost out to Chinese OEMs in capturing the smartphone market in India. The Indian market is currently dominated by Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung, and Huawei but they all sell smartphones with prices starting from Rs 5,000 or higher. With Android Go, Google wants Indian OEMs to capture the very low-end of the market — the sub-Rs 5,000 one. This market largely comprises of feature phone users and Google is hoping to lure them to buy their first smartphone by offering a better user experience with Android Go.

The Go edition of Android Oreo is essentially a lighter version of Android 8.1 Oreo that contains optimisations and tweaks to better perform on devices with less than 1GB of RAM. The OS comes with the ‘Go’ variant of the Play Store and other key Google apps like Google Maps, YouTube, Google Assistant and others which are light on resources and occupy less storage space. With a less resource hungry OS and lighter apps, Android Go devices are bound to offer a better experience than other Android devices which run the full-fledged version of the OS with their measly specifications.