Rumors have long circulated that Google is working on an operating system for feature phones. In March of this year, mentions of a special mode that allows the OS to be controlled with buttons were found in the Ghromium Gerrit repository, and now new information has emerged.
The Gizchina resource published a screenshot of the main page of the Chrome browser, adapted for feature phones. This required a change in the interface, making it resemble Android Oreo. However, there is no functional difference. It is still unclear which models will receive this OS version and when. It is also uncertain how functional it will be compared to Android.
However, it is evident that the company intends to compete with KaiOS—the operating system used on feature devices. Considering its incredible popularity in India, where it has surpassed iOS and is catching up to Android, this is a reasonable step. The system is used on more than 40 million devices there.
As a reminder, KaiOS was developed as an alternative to Android One for cheap and simple feature phones. This system is based on Linux and the developments of the closed Firefox OS project. It is financed, among others, by Google; however, it seems that Mountain View wants to do more than just participate in the process—it aims to control it.
Besides KaiOS and the aforementioned unnamed system, we can recall the universal Fuchsia system, which will be able to run Android applications and on Chromebooks with AMD processors. There is also 'Aurora'— Finnish Sailfish, which is also based on Linux code.
Source: 3dnews.ru
