Google’s “Android One” gets watered down again, now a shell of its former self

Android One is (was?) Google's push for high-quality, low-cost smartphones for "the next five billion"—people in developing countries that do not have smartphones. Places like India have lots of cheap, crappy Android phones, and the goal of the program was for Google to show the local Android OEMs a better way to do things. Imagine the Nexus program, but on a serious budget.

Originally, Android One devices were built by local OEMs, with Google providing reference designs and dictating the components that could be used. The software came directly from Google, resulting in decently optimized builds of stock Android with relatively fast updates.

From a technical standpoint, the program worked. We have an Android One device, and for about $100, it's an excellent little phone. It updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow the day after the OS' release, and thanks to Google's insistence on a minimum spec and high-quality components, it runs Marshmallow shockingly well. It's actually probably the only ~$100 Android device on Earth that runs Marshmallow.

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