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Indias Indus beats Apple, Microsoft for second spot in smartphone operating system market

NEW DELHI: Mumbai-based Indus OS, creator of the worlds first regional operating system, has pipped Apple and Microsoft to take the second spot in the smartphone operating system market — a first for a local software maker.


According to data from Counterpoint Research with ET, Indus OS had a 5.6% share in the total smartphone market during January-March, ahead of Apples iOS which was at No. 5 with 2.5% share and Microsofts Windows which had a share of 0.3% — same as Samsungs Tizen OS - at No. 7.

"Were adding close to half a million activations every month and we expect to double this within the next six months," said Indus OS chief executive officer Rakesh Deshmukh. "We have targeted 100 million customers by 2018," he added. The company which started putting its OS in Micromax smartphones about nine months ago, aims to put its OS in one in every six phones sold in the country by 2017. Indus OS is available on 25 models Android still leads the Indian smartphone market with 83.8% share for the first quarter of the year, during which 24.8 million devices were sold. Indus OS is present on 1.4 million of these phones.

After Android and Indus, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomis has taken the No 3 position with a 4.1% share held by its MIUI operating system, while Cynaogen OS - used by Micromaxs subsidiary YU Televentures on five models - is at No 4 with a 2.8% share of the market. India has about 300 million internet users, which can potentially rise to 500 million within this year as per telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, but not all are comfortable using English for all transactions. As internet companies like Google and Facebook look to add more users which will come from tier III and IV cities and from rural India, most companies recognise the need to have local language support to attract these users.

Indus OS, which raised $5 million in a series A funding from investors led by Omidyar Network in January, has larger reach than Googles own stock Android OS used on Android One phones, which is only available on about 1.2 million phones, data added.

Quick growth in the regional operating system can be attributed to the target segment it addresses, that includes millions of people that do not know English and prefer using their local language not only to converse but also as in their smartphones.

The OS has patented regional keyboards that support 12 languages and are capable of translating messages written in a local language to English with a left swipe and transliterating it by swiping right. It also has a local app store called App Bazaar, allowing users to download apps in native languages, without requiring them to use email IDs or paying by credit cards.

"Over 90% of the users have activated App Bazaar and 75% use it on a monthly basis," Deshmukh said, and added that the company was in advance stages of talks with two other handset brands to extend partnership for the local language based OS.