Android One is slowly but surely making its way to major emerging markets across the globe. The latest expansion sees the program being introduced today in Africa. For the moment there is only one Android One smartphone available to local consumers, which retails for roughly $87.
There is huge growth potential for Google and Android One in Africa, as Internet use remains relatively low on the continent. A study by Internet Society estimates that, by the end of 2015, 23 percent of mobile phones will be able to have Internet access, a figure which is extremely low when compared to Asia, Europe or North America. So it is very important for Google to get Android One right in Africa.
Google is launching Android One in Africa, but it is not bringing the program to all local markets. At the moment, it is only targeting Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria -- bringing the tally of countries where Android One is available to 16, up from the previous 10 -- through HOT 2, a smartphone made by Infinix. The device is available through online retailer Jumia in all aforementioned markets, and, in Nigeria, also through local retailers.
To better cater to local consumers' needs, Google also says that it will introduce offline support to YouTube in the six African markets later this year. This feature is designed to allow users to download videos when connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network and watch them later in an area with poor coverage, a situation that is no doubt common on the continent. Not all YouTube content is, however, available for offline viewing, and there is a 48 hour limitation on how long offline content is available to watch.
As far as HOT 2 is concerned, we are looking at a pretty well-equipped smartphone for the money. Its main features include dual SIM support, which is popular with consumers in emerging markets, front and rear cameras, FM radio, 16 GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, and 1 GB of RAM for the base version -- a "premium" version doubles that capacity, giving users 2 GB of RAM to play with.
As is typical of new Android One releases, HOT 2 runs the latest version of Android, Android 5.1 Lollipop. It will, of course, receive a software upgrade to Android Marshmallow, which is expected to be released in the coming months.