We learn that the new Micromax OS will be a fork of Android.
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Lead by former Amazon executive Ashish Agrawal, the first smartphones running on the new OS are expected by the end of the year, and they will be affordably priced too.
While the official name of the operating system is not known yet, it’s just a matter of time till more information starts pouring in.
Micromax’s range of affordable Android handsets have managed to help the company secure a substantial share of the Indian smartphone market and the company is planning to use a forked Android operating system in the future, to further differentiate itself from its competitors.
“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. Micromax will create some application that runs on its operating system. Learning from Apple’s success, Samsung developed its own OS called “Tizen”; which is now rolling out on latest Samsung gadgets. Micromax had earlier signed an exclusivity deal with Cyanogen that prevented OnePlus from offering Cyanogenmod updates to owners of the OnePlus One phone. Xiaomi has also put its customized OS on their hardware.
It makes ideal sense for the gadget makers to be in complete control of the operating system. It allows them to tweak features and also roll out updates much faster. When a security related bug is discovered, the company can push the update quickly.
The research and development team of the company based in Bengaluru will be doing this flagship project and more than 75 employees have been deployed from the Nokia research and development in Beijing.
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The company believes that it is closer to Indian audiences and has a better understanding of the local market.
