14 DAY TRIAL // Great news for Android fans in emerging markets who can't afford any of the smartphones available in their countries as Google has just announced it will expand its Android One program to more regions.
But first things first. Google announced that new products and features will be available in Lagos, which are meant to improve users' experience when using a smartphone to access the Internet.
But that's not all, as the search giant confirmed the Android One program is expanding to Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco.
This means that a new Android smartphone will be available for purchase in these countries very soon. The device is called Infinix HOT 2 and is now on sale in Nigeria for just $88 outright. As mentioned earlier, the smartphone will be launched in the other countries over the next few weeks.
Infinix HOT 2 packs decent specs for the price you pay. It's also worth mentioning that it comes in two versions, depending on the amount of RAM: 1GB and 2GB. The 2GB RAM model is only available in gold, while the 1GB version can be had in black, white, red, and blue.
The phone will be upgraded to Android M
Also, the smartphone ships with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop operating system right out of the box, but Google confirmed Infinix HOT 2 will receive an update to the next version of Android (according to Infinix's schedule).
On top of that, Google announced it would make the YouTube viewing experience much better by extending YouTube offline to Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt within the next few months.
With YouTube offline, users will be able to store many of the videos on YouTube for up to 48 hours, so they can watch them later when they do not have Internet connection.
“Nearly one year ago, Google introduced the Android One program and YouTube Offline in India. Today, 6 countries in Africa — with combined populations of 379 million people — join the list of places where Android One phones are sold,” said Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management, Google.