Micromax plans to develop its own OS across platforms

Following in the wake of Samsung, Microsoft, Xiaomi and similar companies that vend smartphones, home-brewed phone maker company Micromax is next in line. Micromax has decided to develop its own OS across platforms. Apart from handsets, Micromax also sells wearable gadgets, TVs and tablets. It intends to build a software system which will work on all these devices. Just like some other OSes, it will be a forked Android version taking advantage of Google’s open source platform.

Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain has told the Economic Times that the cross platform OS will make its debut on the company’s phones before April 2016 and they will be priced accordingly.

Ashish Agrawal, who worked with Amazon previously, joined Micromax as Chief Technology Officer, early this year. He will be overseeing the entire development process. The company’s software team based in Bengaluru will be creating the OS. Roughly 75 employees from Nokia R&D in Beijing and a few more from Shenzen will support the initiative. Until its OS gains a wide enough audience, Micromax will need to have apps ready for customers.

Androids dominance in the smartphone market is attractive to the developers, that’s why Google Play Store is populated with so many applications, games and the productivity tools. We suppose Micromax could also tie up with these entertainment shores like music, games, movies, T.V programs according to the users demand. As the pioneer of the Indian company, with regards to apps, it may be able to understand the requirements of the Indian consumer better than international companies.

Micromax Informatics has its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. It was originally meant to be an IT software company until it started selling mobile phones in 2008. It is now the second largest smartphone brand in India, and the tenth biggest in the world.