Google to let low-cost manufacturers drive Android push in India

In its bid to emerge a significant player in India's huge wireless industry, Google Inc is to allow several Indian handset makers to offer low-cost devices that use the technology giant's Android operating platform in the coming months.

The technology enables smartphones offer a variety of functionality including touchscreen capability and a large marketplace of small software ''apps'' and has quickly picked up market share in developed countries like the US.

The Wall Street Journal says, Google is now eyeing developing markets like India which has 670 million cellphone subscribers. The Indian market has 18 million subscribers a month in recent times.

The majority of Google-powered phones in India like those from Motorola and HTC carry price tags of $400 and more, which is very high price for a market with a 42 per cent population out of 1.2 billion people earning less than $1.25 a day the paper said.

The newspaper added that Google is now looking to newer Indian smartphone manufacturers like Micromax Informatics Ltd, Spice Mobility Ltd, and Olive Telecom to offer Android phones in the $150 dollar range, which could be in time pared down to a $100 level so the huge middle class Indians could be targeted more effectively.

The paper quoted Vinay Goel, who oversees Google's products in India, as saying that there was much innovation happening from local manufacturers.