Even though the major chunk of Android device market is owned by local brands like Micromax, Karbonn, Spice, Xolo and many other brands, the Android development in India is always limited to popular brands like Samsung, HTC etc… This is due to the non-responsive attitude of the Local manufacturers to the request for the release of the Kernel sources of their devices under GPL rules. The lack of kernel sources limited the development to most of the devices released in India, but it is really happy to say that you can get your hands on the Kernel sources for the new Android One devices.

The cheap Android devices are now blessed with the Kernel sources which was quoted by Bill Yi of Android Building Google Group as

Today we pushed the kernel source for the Android One device family. The kernel source can be found on the android-msm-sprout-3.4-kitkat-mr2 branch in the kernel/msm project. It’s also tagged with ‘android-4.4.4_r3’.

Update: The kernel source can be found on the android-mediatek-sprout-3.4-kitkat-mr2 branch in the kernel/mediatek project.

Even though the Android One doesn’t hold the monopoly in the hardware segment at this price tag, the main advantage comes with the Google’s promise to release regular updates to these device for the next couple of years. Now the release of the Kernel sources had further sweetened the pot by giving room to the developers to get their hands dirty with these super affordable pure Android devices.

This move from Google will help developers to port various popular roms like Cyanogenmod, SlimKat etc… to these devices which will attract more people to buy the latest Android One devices. Looking at the Android One device sales and the popularity, it is a great threat for Samsung in India which is in the verge to lose the largest Smartphone market in Asia.

So developers, let the cooking begin and don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty in the process. Get the Android One Kernel Sources from here.

via Google Groups