Android smartphone development plan underway in Russia

Russia, which continues to invade Ukraine even at the time of writing the article, has been sanctioned by countries and companies around the world, and major smartphone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung have also stopped shipping products to Russia . Meanwhile, it became clear that the development plan for domestic Android smartphones in Russia is progressing at a rapid pace.

News
https://www.cnews.ru/news/top/2023-02-28_v_rossii_sozdayut_otechestvennye

The sketchy plan to build a Russian Android phone | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/the-sketchy-plan-to-build-a-russian-android-phone/

Regarding the situation of smartphones in Russia, major manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung continue to suspend product shipments, and on February 27, 2023, in the United States, 'For Russia and Belarus, the wholesale price is 300 dollars (approximately Stable supply continues to be difficult, such as the establishment of a rule to ban the export of smartphones worth 40,000 yen).

Meanwhile, on February 28, 2023, Russian domestic media reported that 'National Computer Corporation (NCC), Russia's largest technology company, will sell 100,000 smartphones and tablets by the end of 2023.' In addition, NCC founder Alexander Kalinin announced an additional investment of 10 billion rubles (about 18 billion yen) in NCC, declaring that it will acquire 10% of the market share by 2026.

According to reports, NCC's planned smartphone will be equipped with Android, and multiple models will be released. In addition, the price is said to be 10,000 rubles to 30,000 rubles (about 18,000 yen to about 54,000 yen).

While the development of Russian Android smartphones was announced, it has also been pointed out that `` Google will stop supplying Android licenses to Russia ''. If the license supply to Russia is stopped, NCC will have to develop its own OS, which will require a great deal of development costs.

In Russia, there is Yandex, which provides search and email services similar to Google, and Russian alternatives to popular apps such as YouTube and Instagram are also widely used. In addition, the Russian government is developing its own Android app store 'RuStore' jointly with Russia's largest SNS 'VKontakte', and an ecosystem that does not rely on Google is already being established. For this reason, even if the supply of Android licenses is cut off, there is a possibility that the transition to a new OS will proceed smoothly.