We see smartphone in every hand but yet the satisfaction with small town people is low. Why? Language barrier. Whether it is Android or iOS both primarily function in English that is always a third language to us.
Battling this language barrier head on, there is new competition in town. The Indus OS is the world first regional operating system and has occupied 2nd position in the smartphone operating system market leaving even iOS behind at number 5.
Designed for a first time smartphone user, the Indus OS is focused on creating a regional smartphone mobile ecosystem for the next 1 billion smartphone users from emerging markets in their native language through innovation, content and simplification. The OS is currently available in English and 12 languages (Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, Kannada, Gujrati, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Marathi)
Swipe right or left.
Having patented regional keyboards that support 12 languages, these translate messages written in a local language to English with a left swipe and transliterate it by swiping right. Also supporting a local app store called App Bazaar, which allows users to download apps in native languages, without the use of email IDs or credit cards.
Based in Mumbai and currently available on 25 models, Indus OS started by putting the software in Micromax smartphones. The OS is now aimed to be in one out of every six smartphone in the country by the end of the year. Having added close to half a million activations every month, the aim is to double this in the next six months and target to reach a 100 million customers by 2018 as stated by Rakesh Deshmukh, CEO.
According to data, 24.8 million smartphones were sold during the first quarter of this year out of which 1.4 million were equipped with Indus OS. The OS now has larger reach than Google’s own stock Android OS used on Android One phones, which is only available on about 1.2 million phones.
App Bazaar
Deshmukh also stated that over 90% of the current users had activated App Bazaar and 75% continue to use it on a monthly basis. He added that the company was in advance stages of talks with two other handset brands to extend partnership for the local language based OS. Safe to say, the Indus OS is a true game changer.
Author: Asavri Misra
