Google’s Android One initiative is a program designed to help device makers offer low-cost Android phones with decent performance and software updates that come straight from Google.
The program is initially targeting developing markets, which is why up until recently you could only buy Android One devices in India.
But now one of the Indian phone makers who’s been offering Android One phones in its home country is branching out: you can buy the Karbonn Sparkle V Android One phone in the UK for £130 (or about $205 US).
That makes the Sparkle V substantially more expensive in the UK than in India, where it sells for Rs 5805 (about $94 US). But phones are often more expensive in the UK than other markets.
The phone will also be on sale for £99 ($156 US) on Black Friday.
The Karbonn Sparkle V features a 4.5 inch, 854 x 480 pixel display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 5MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, a 1700mAh battery, and a microSD card slot.
It’s clearly not one of the most powerful smartphones around. But it’s one of the cheapest to receive software updates directly from Google.
via ZDNet
why it is costly compared to india?
VAT?
In India it’s highly subedized to get people into the Android Ecosystem, also on average people make and subesquently have far less money in india so they just price stuff there way cheaper.
For example the Jolla Sailfish OS Phone is sold there about 200 USD cheaper than in Europe, for no other reason than that people in India have less money to spend than Europeans.
People see Android One Phones as “Cheap, Nexus Lite”, so selling it to richer Markets at higher prices is purely to increase profit margins, and as long as they are cheaper than the cheapest currently sold Nexus Phone, there are people who will still buy it.