Smartphones from Google’s Android One program — a global initiative to bring high-quality smartphones to as many people as possible — will go on sale in the Philippines in the coming weeks.
The Internet giant is working with two leading partners Cherry Mobile and MyPhone to bring Android One smartphones to the Philippines. The Cherry One and MyPhone Uno will be sold through retail stores across the country.
The Philippines is the sixth country to be included in the Android One program, after India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
Android One phones in the Philippines will come with the latest and fastest version of Android (Lollipop) and will automatically update to new versions. Android Lollipop provides the fastest, most responsive Android experience ever — up to 2x better performance than the previous version.
The battery saver feature can help to extend batteries by up to 90 minutes. Android’s new look, material design, has responsive natural motion, realistic lighting and shadows, and bold, edge-to-edge graphics making experiences more beautiful. There are also quick settings to conserve data: It takes just two quick swipes to turn off data and check data usage. Android One phones also feature great hardware, like front- and rear-facing cameras as well as features particularly important to the Philippines such as dual SIM slots, an FM radio tuner, and a microSD card slot for additional storage.
Through Google Play, Android One phones have access to over 1 million apps that allow people to message friends, make video calls, socialize, check news and weather, and play games. Google apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Search, and Google Translate come pre-loaded on the phones.
In conjunction with this launch, Smart and Sun will help Android One users get free over-the-air (OTA) updates to the Android operating system and certain amounts of app downloads from Google Play for the first six months — all without counting toward their mobile data plan.
Smart Prepaid will also offer FREE data allowance for Android OS updates, Google Play downloads, and Google search for those who will purchase the MyPhone Uno phone in their retail outlets nationwide.
Globe will also be working with Android One users to enable better access to the Internet through its robust ust network.
Google is also working to reduce data costs for Android One users in the Philippines. The data compression feature on Android One’s Chrome browser helps compress the amount of data flowing between the phone and the Internet. And the Philippines is one of the few countries where YouTube users can take videos offline to watch later during periods of low or no Internet connectivity.
After tapping the offline icon in the YouTube app, certain videos can be played back without an Internet connection for up to 48 hours.
Caesar Sengupta, Google Vice President of Product Management, said, “We are very happy to bring Android One smartphones to the Philippines. Working with great partners like Cherry Mobile and MyPhone, we have designed and brought to market these high quality smartphones at highly affordable prices. We cannot wait to see what Filipinos do with them.”
Google said it had a number of partners for the Android One project, including phone makers Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, Asus, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic and Xolo, and chipmaker Qualcomm.
