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Google invests $22 million in the OS powering Nokia feature phones
Google is investing $22 million into KaiOS, the feature phone operating system that has risen from the ashes of Mozilla's Firefox OS. While Google rules the smartphone world with Android, KaiOS is slowly emerging as a popular choice for feature phones, particularly in emerging markets. KaiOS started last year as a forked version of Firefox OS, and the operating system ships on some Nokia-branded feature phones like the Nokia 8110. Devices from TCL and Micromax are also powered by KaiOS.
Google's investment might seem odd given its Android dominance, and its efforts with Android Go, but it's clearly strategic. "Google and KaiOS have also agreed to work together to make the Google Assistant, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Search available to KaiOS users," says KaiOS CEO Sebastien Codeville.
I always liked the ideas behind Firefox OS, but the promised $10 to $25 smartphone never materialized. Would you use a KaiOS phone?
(Score: 3, Informative) by ilPapa on Friday June 29 2018, @05:54AM (1 child)
OK, never mind. Against better judgement, I looked up "feature phone". For those of you who might not know, a "feature phone" is exactly the same as a regular phone, but it's cheap as shit. I guess being cheap is the "feature". I wonder why they didn't just call them "cheap phones".
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @06:24AM
Almost everything before the iPhone in 2007 would fall into the feature phone category.
With Firefox/KaiOS, you are getting something that is sorta like a smartphone. Maybe not quite.