Android Targets India, China for Growth

Android Targets India, China for Growth

Techtree News Staff, Jul 06, 2010 1536 hrs IST

Google will make it easier for app developers to accept payments from within apps

If you always thought Android smartphones were meant expensive devices, get ready to change your notions. Apparently, Google is readying itself to push the Android OS on low-cost handsets in the emerging markets of India and China.

In a recent interview, Andy Rubin, vice president for Engineering at Google was heard saying that the "down-market opportunity is about to happen. It's actually quite a revolution". To achieve this low-cost dream, Google is making it easier for app developers to accept payments from within apps and also to sell subscriptions, in order to make more money from Android. In addition to this, low-cost handset makers like Huawei and even LG would be used to make Android more reachable to the masses.

This move comes soon after a latest Gartner report sees Android pipping Apple's iOS sometime in 2012 to become the world's second-most popular mobile operating system, behind Nokia's Symbian.