The superb return of the scrappy Android underdogs
The Android {hardware} startups are again — and also you’d higher imagine it is value your whereas to note.
BedexpStock/JR Raphael, IDG
A humorous factor is going on now right here within the land o’ Android.
At a time once you’d suppose the highly effective massive canine of Android units could be dominating the dojo and leaving little air for anybody else to enter, a sequence of small, scrappy startups is incomes consideration among the many Android fanatic crowd because it gears as much as enter the world.
By all widespread logic, these firms oughta be on a digital suicide mission. Most market share analyses present Samsung constantly clawing onto the lion’s share of Android telephone purchases, with even the opposite big-name Android telephone contenders preventing over relative scraps of the hardware-buying pie (which, by the way, is most assuredly not apple-flavored).
Heck, even Google itself has been going through a sluggish and seemingly arduous course of to carry its self-made Pixel telephones from niche-level merchandise for individuals within the know to family names that command a significant chunk of the market — to show ’em into units which can be on the radar of standard, non-geek-card-carrying people, in different phrases. And that is Google we’re speaking about, for cryin’ out loud.
And but, as we converse, two bold firms are getting ready to do the inconceivable — to power their approach into the realm of Android {hardware} and provide units they promise might be genuinely totally different from the established order.
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Whether or not they succeed is one thing we’ll have to attend to see, after all. But with completely zero uncertainty, I can guarantee you this: The actual fact that they are even making an attempt is a large win for us as appreciators of attention-grabbing expertise — and their pending presence within the crowded Android market is in and of itself a fairly spectacular win.
Familiar faces, acquainted chew
The firms in query right here could also be new to the sport of Android phone-making, however the precise mammals behind them are something however inexperienced.
The first and most intriguing to me, personally, is a first-time phone-maker referred to as Osom. As we converse, it is within the midst of speaking up its first Android providing — a sleek-lookin’ little ditty recognized merely because the Osom OV1.
Osom
Behold: the Osom telephone. (And sure, it is pronounced like “superior.”)
The OV1 was initially slated to launch round February, however that timing was pushed again to this summer season after which extra lately to the fourth quarter — with the newest delay apparently being pushed by a need to ship the telephone with a more recent, yet-to-be-available Qualcomm processor.
In phrases of appearances, if the telephone seems to be acquainted, it ought to: The Osom OV1 is basically a successor to the Essential PH-1, an Android-fan-favorite telephone that launched in 2017 amidst grand plans for a whole ecosystem of sensible residence merchandise round it. Despite that gadget’s distinctive design and unusually spectacular method to well timed software program help, the corporate behind it will definitely went below — and no official follow-ups or complementary units had been ever launched.
Essential
The not-long-for-this-world Essential Phone. Rest thee effectively, candy prince.
Osom is (pardon the pun) basically selecting up the place Essential left off, with a lot of the identical staff behind it — although with one key exception: At least outwardly, the Essential Phone revolved round Android founder Andy Rubin, whose affiliation with the product gave the corporate quick credibility and put it immediately on the map. But Rubin’s fame nowadays is not what it as soon as was, to place it mildly — and so with Osom, the staff he’d assembled is branching out by itself and shifting past that tainted affiliation.
So what makes the Osom OV1 so attention-grabbing? Why ought to anybody care? Well, just a few causes:
Oh, and the Osom staff has stated its gadget will promote for lower than a thousand bucks — a big issue when most premium-tier telephones are actually climbing effectively into 4 figures.
And that is solely half one in every of this next-gen Android underdog story.
Much ado about Nothing
The different incoming Android {hardware} startup is equally new and but additionally acquainted. It’s referred to as, moderately amusingly, Nothing — and it is a mystery-shrouded venture orchestrated by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei.
Nothing has already produced a pair of earbuds — which, erm, okay — however now, unofficial reviews point out the corporate has been quietly exhibiting off a prototype of a brand new cellular gadget with plans to launch it publicly in April.
What makes the Nothing telephone one thing value shopping for is one thing we do not but know. Details in regards to the gadget are nonetheless extremely scarce.
But Pei managed to construct up a passionate following of Android fanatics together with his early efforts at OnePlus. Those first a number of OnePlus flagships had been fastidiously catered to the tech-lovin’ group, with a smart method to software program — a “stock-plus” type of philosophy not all that dissimilar to what Osom is now doing — together with distinctive {hardware} and nearly shockingly inexpensive worth tags, particularly in these early days.
OnePlus has since pivoted towards pursuing a extra mainstream type of enchantment (and made — after which waffled on — some questionable selections with its merchandise with a purpose to accomplish that). And to be truthful, these efforts appear to be paying off: The firm’s gross sales had been up a whopping 524% from year-to-year in 2021, based on one evaluation.
So, yeah: If there’s any one that is aware of the way to squeeze their approach into an overcrowded market and handle to make a dent, Pei certain looks like the man.
Diversity has at all times been one in every of Android’s best belongings
Now, look: We’re speaking 100% about unreleased, theoretical merchandise right here. I actually cannot let you know if they’re going to be value your hard-earned nickels at this level or if they’re going to be capable of maintain a candle to the present prime choices throughout the Android {hardware} ecosystem.
What I can let you know, although, is that range has at all times been one in every of Android’s best belongings. Unlike the Apple ecosystem, the place it is very a lot a one-size-fits-all, love-it-or-leave-it type of mindset, Android has at all times supplied an array of various gadget kinds and choices.
In latest years, although — with HTC and LG failing and flopping, Motorola straight-up sucking, and once-promising scrappy startups like Essential, Nextbit, and OnePlus both folding or specializing in very totally different objectives than those that made them well-liked — the lifelike stage of significant alternative amongst these of us in search of distinctive flagship-quality experiences on Android has change into surprisingly slim.
Suffice it to say, shifting again to a state of affairs the place now we have genuinely compelling selections — ones with with totally different however equally stellar general consumer experiences — could be an enormous leap ahead for us creatures who admire Android and admire having attention-grabbing choices. And actually, no matter whether or not you finally find yourself shopping for an Osom telephone or a Nothing telephone, having these firms pushing the boundaries of what is attainable inside a premium Android gadget can solely be a great factor by way of rising competitors and forcing everybody all through the ecosystem to remain on their toes.
And yet another factor: While having a measly 1% of the general smartphone market could look like peanuts to an organization like Google, 1% of that huge meat pie is definitely a fairly astronomical quantity by most non-gigantic company requirements.
Consider: Somewhere within the neighborhood of 1.4 billion smartphones had been bought worldwide in 2021, based on the number-crunching nerds over at Gartner. One p.c of that may be 14 million.
That’s 14 million gross sales with a mere 1% of the general smartphone market. That means even a fraction of a p.c — as an example, 0.25% — would nonetheless be a hefty 3.5 million merchandise shipped.
Osom and Nothing do not must do a lot to construct wholesome and sustainable companies. Even in the event that they’re barely a blip on the radar throughout the broader smartphone market, they may conceivably be killing it by their very own measures of success. And, extra necessary, they may very well be enriching our choices in a big approach that brings Android’s earlier days again to thoughts.
The Android underdogs are again, child. And imagine you me: No matter what sort of telephone you presently like utilizing, their second coming is one thing effectively value celebrating.
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