Indus OS, an Indic mobile Operating System (OS) has partnered with mobile manufacturer Karbonn Mobiles to load Indus OS on Karbonn’s smartphones. However, it is not clear if all Karbonn phones will come loaded with Indus OS, or just selected models. We have sough clarification from Indus for this. A spokesperson from the company clarified that Karbonn will load Indus OS in selected models only. Previously, Indus OS has partnered with mobile manufacturers like Micromax, Celkon and Swipe in India and Elite in Bangladesh to run on some of their models. It currently claims to have over 4.5 million users and a 6.3% market share in India. The first official Indus OS powered device was launched in May 2015. Indus OS is basically a customized operating system built on top of Android and currently supports 12 regional languages including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Assamese. The OS also offers an app store like Google Play with over 15,000 apps. Features The operating system features a patented ‘Indus keyboard’ extension for typing. It also offers an auto-correction option and a patented matra-prediction feature in 12 languages. In addition, Indus OS tied up with the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) to introduce an integrated text-to-speech feature in 6 regional languages. Rebranding and Fundraise Indus OS was earlier known as ‘FirstTouch’; it rebranded to its new name in January and raised $5 million in a round of funding led by Omidyar Network. The company said that it would use the money to…
