MANILA, Philippines – Google announced on Tuesday, February 17, that it was bringing the Android One initiative to the Philippines, becoming the sixth country to be included in the Android One program.

As part of an event held at Whitespace Manila, Google announced that it was teaming up with Cherry Mobile and MyPhone to bring Android One smartphones to the Philippines.

Two phones have been announced for the Android One release, the Cherry One and the MyPhone Uno.

According to a Google statement, the two phones will run on Android Lollipop, the latest version of the Android operating system.

The Android One phones will come with features meant for the Philippine audience, including dual SIM slots, an FM radio tuner, and a microSD card slot for extra storage. The phones will also sport at least 1GB of RAM and 4-8 GB of storage space on them.

Along with the launch of the new Android One phones, Smart and Sun Cellular will help Android One users get free over-the-air updates to the Android operating system. Users will also get a certain amount of app downloads from Google Play for the first 6 months without those downloads counting toward their mobile data plan.

Globe will also work with Android One users to get better access to the Internet through its network. 

Google will also be working to reduce data costs for Android One users in the Phlippines, with features like data compression on the Chrome browser and YouTube Offline Playback as part of the feature set for Philippine Android One owners.  

Caesar Sengupta, Google Vice President for Product Management, said in a press statement that the company is “very happy to bring Android One smartphones to the Philippines. Working with great partners like Cherry Mobile and MyPhone, we have designed and brought to market these high quality smartphones at highly affordable prices.”

During his keynote, Sengupta added, “Our goal is to create a high quality mobile experience and get it into as many hands as possible.”

Sengupta also confirmed that the price points for these intiial Android One offerings is set at around the P5000 ($112) mark.

Android One is a set of guidelines by Google that would allow manufacturers to make quality Android smartphones quickly while bringing the price down thanks to a mix of sourced hardware, upgraded software, and easy connectivity. 

Android One was first introduced in India, with a number of manufacturers providing sub-$100 smartphones. – Rappler.com