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Google unveils new India-first products to connect next billion
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SME Times News Bureau | 05 Dec, 2017
Firming up its commitment to connect the next billion Indians by
focusing on entry-level smartphones, Google on Tuesday announced several
India-first products and features, some of which will be rolled out in
other countries soon.
Currently, there are nearly 400 million
Internet users in India, along with over 300 million smartphone users
and about 650 million mobile phone users.
"On average, a
connected mobile Internet user in India today is consuming over 4GB of
data per month. At the current growth rate and given the connectivity
environment, we expect this number to reach 11GB per user per month in
the next four years and Google is here to help connect all," Rajan
Anandan, Vice President, South East Asia and India at Google, said at
the company's third annual "Google for India" event here.
"There
are 230 million Indian language users online on Google today and 170
million of them are using our messaging service. Yet, we have over 900
million Indians who aren't connected to Internet. Our mission is
connectivity for every Indian. We'll stay focused until every single
Indian is connected," Anandan said.
At the event, Google
announced Android Oreo (Go edition) that will be available for
entry-level smartphones, for which India is a huge market.
"Oreo
devices with 512MB to 1GB of RAM will get all the optimisations that
come with Android Oreo (Go edition), including a better performing OS
with built-in data management features and security benefits," said
Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Next Billion Users Team at Google.
"Our partners' phones running Android Oreo (Go edition) will hit shelves in early 2018," he added.
To
help bikers find the most suitable route in India, Google has
incorporated navigation routes for two-wheelers with Voice Assistant
capabilities in its Maps feature.
"India is the world's largest
two-wheeler market and the navigation needs of these millions of riders
are different from automobile drivers. Two-wheeler mode in Maps gives
routes that use shortcuts not accessible to cars. It also provides
customized traffic and arrival time estimations," said Martha Welsh,
Director, Google Maps.
The two-wheeler mode uses machine
learning to suggest more relevant routes for riders, using smaller roads
and two-wheeler-friendly shortcuts.
The two-wheeler mode will arrive in more countries later, Google said.
In a move to empower feature phone users in the country, Google announced to bring its Voice Assistant on Reliance JioPhone.
The
Google Assistant for JioPhone will be available in English and Hindi.
This is the first time Voice Assistant will be available in any feature
phone.
"For the first time ever globally, the Google Assistant
will be available on a feature phone. Whether in entry-level smartphones
or JioPhones, the Google Assistant can help you call, text, play music
and videos, and access other apps," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, Product
Management Director at Google.
The company also announced a new
set of pre-installed Google apps, including Google Go (a new lighter app
from Google Search) and Google Assistant for Android Oreo (Go edition).
Google Go is light on storage and data and works efficiently on
patchy connections. "It's less than 5MB to download, and search results
in Google Go are optimized to save up to 40 per cent data," Sengupta
added.
Google also announced "Files Go," an app that will help
free up space, find files faster and share files offline on smartphones
that come with less internal storage.
The company also brought bill payment facilities on its digital payment app "Tez".
"More
than 70 billers will be supported, including utilities and
direct-to-home service providers, on Tez," Sengupta told reporters here.
"Tez"
will support bill payments for Tata Power, MTNL, DishTV, CPDCL and
other utility providers that will include national and state electricity
providers, water, DTH and gas recharges.
"Tez" has processed
over 140 million transactions from nearly 12 million active users. There
are more than 525,000 merchants already on the Google mobile payment
app.
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