Since PM Narendra Modi announced his Make in India initiative, a large number of smartphone companies have announced their plans to manufacture their products in the country. Joining this list is Canonical, which made its debut in India in August.
Canonical is the company behind the Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu. It launched two smartphones in India earlier this year – the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and the Aquaris E5 Ubuntu Edition.
Canonical is said to be in talks with local handset makers to manufacture its smartphones in the country, BusinessLine reports. “India is and continues to be an important focus for us and we are in continuous talks and engagement with other OEM partners,” Jordana Sherman, Marketing Director, Devices, Canonical, told the publication. In addition to smartphones, the company is also said to be eyeing the Internet of Things sector in the country.
The aforementioned Ubuntu smartphones were launched in India in August, and are on sale exclusively Snapdeal. They are priced at Rs 11,999 and Rs 13,499 respectively. Both handsets boast a basic set of specifications and features, but it is the Ubuntu operating system that is the talking point. The OS is big on gestures, and features a concept called Scopes. This includes visually-rich panels that aggregate and display content like Weather, Music or News. The company has also made these panels customizable for handset makers and operators. You can read about all the features here.
As mentioned above, an increasing number of companies are showing an interest in manufacturing their smartphones in India. The likes of Asus, Alcatel and Vivo have revealed plans of eventually starting production, while the likes of OnePlus, Gionee and Xiaomi have partnered Foxconn to manufacture smartphones in the country.
Lenovo and Motorola will be manufacturing smartphones at their Sriperambudur plant in Chennai, while other companies like Huawei, Oppo, and Microsoft too have shown a similar interest in the Make in India initiative.
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