Next Wave of SmartPhones Must Come Down to Rs. 2000 Says Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai Spoke on Introducing Cheap SmartPhones: This India-born present Google’s CEO has expressed his views on the need of cheaper entry-level smartphones in emerging countries like India. In an event that happened at IIT Kharagpur, Sundar Pichai said that the prices of smartphones in India need to come down to as low as $30 to have an improved access to the Internet and digital services for people. With the country emerging to be the global player in the “Digital Economy”, focusing on local language support is also needed.
During his speech at his alma mater IIT Kharagpur, Sundar Pichai said addressing an audience of 3,500 students and teachers, “I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. I think really we need to bring the prices down, even more, maybe at $30 level (about Rs. 2,000) for India for entry-level smartphones,”
After launching “Android One” in the year 2014, Google has grouped with smartphone partners like Micromax, Spice, and Karbonn t launch high quality and affordable Android devices for customers in emerging countries like India, in particular. The initial launches at that time were priced at Rs. 6,399 onwards.
Since then, many smartphones from different companies have hit the market. There are smartphones that cost Rs. 1,000 currently but the most aspiring devices are available in the market at a minimum price of Rs. 3,000. Sundar Pichai said that with the effective Public-Private relationships, Google was even able to come up with many programs for Digital India.
Sundar Pichai expressed his confidence over India becoming a global partner in the Digital economy when asked about by when India would be able to catch up with China on the digital front. He said, “I think absolutely, with full certainty, convinced that India will be a global player in the digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world in the digital economy. We have all the foundation”.
Speaking on Startups in India, he said that connectivity is extraordinarily important and Google has come up with a number of useful projects such as “Internet Saathi” to educate people on the Internet, especially in rural areas, as well as to get them online. As English is spoken by a small segment of the overall population, he said that the company is working on introducing the services in different languages.
Google wants smartphones as cheap as $30 in India
