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Tech

Google Wants $30 Smartphones to Bring 'Next 5 Billion' Online

Getting the next generation of users online.
Photo courtesy Google

Google is not giving up on its plan to blanket the developing world with inexpensive smartphones.

Rajan Anandan, the company's managing director in India and Southeast Asia, told the Financial Times yesterday that Google will "reboot" its Android One initiative within the next few weeks. This initiative, first announced in 2014, is designed to bring "the next five billion" people online.

These people, chiefly located in emerging markets like India, will only be able to enjoy the benefits of being online if they have access to the kind of inexpensive smartphones that Google is supporting with Android One, the company claims.

To that end Google is now encouraging manufacturers to develop smartphones that cost as little as $30, which the company believes is the "sweet spot" that will attain broad acceptance in countries like India. Earlier Android One smartphones cost around $100.

Anandan told the FT that "10 years from now a billion Indians will be online, and when we have a billion Indians online we think that's going to make a huge different to the global internet economy."

Google isn't the only US company thinking about the next generation of internet users. Motorola's well received Moto G smartphone is squarely aimed at emerging markets like Brazil, while Facebook is developing drones that will beam internet access down to rural areas. Google's own Project Loon will similarly beam internet access to rural areas, but using balloons instead of drones.