By Do you love the stock android experience? The most basic vanilla pure Android version designed and developed by Google. If you’re like me and you love this unmodified version of Android you may know that Chinese Smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi had an Android One program to offer the stock experience on their Mi A-series, What exactly happened?
Smartphones on the Android One Program get android updates faster, have no bloatware, and run default Google apps just like the Pixel devices.
Back in August 2020, GSMArena reported that Xiaomi was leaving the Android One program behind. This meant Its Mi A-series which had gained popularity mostly in the western market by offering this clean Android experience was gone.
By then, Xiaomi’s Android One lineup consisted of the Xiaomi Mi A1, Mi A2, and the Mi A3 with the company officially confirming that it will no longer release handsets running Android One, which in turn means that there was never a Mi A4.
The company didn’t give a specific reason for the discontinuation of the lineup but our educated guess would be Xiaomi’s MiUI skin.
At the core, Xiaomi doesn’t consider itself a hardware manufacturer, but an internet company that happens to make hardware. The company has promised to forever cap hardware profit margins at 5pc, Now this means Xiaomi devices will forever be cheaper than competitors, so to sustain the company and make a profit, Xiaomi needs to make money in other ways. One of them is by offering add-ons, extra services, and gaining revenue through ads, these ads are displayed on its MiUI skin which was not available in the Mi A-series thus the program becoming obsolete.
In Kenya, the company’s low prices are very welcomed, but that just means you have to live with these ads, there is no official way to remove ads from Xiaomi phones running MIUI.
However, there are still countless devices running Android one you can choose from, all Nokia smartphones are built on the program. There are also other UIs that run close to stock Android that you could opt for if you love the experience.
Let me know if I should compile a list for you over on our Twitter and Telegram or leave a comment down below.
