How KaiOS won third place in the mobile crown

Sébastien Codeville, CEO of KaiOS, is an engineer specializing in commerce. He made his debut at Alcatel Mobile and Philips. In 2010, he joined TCL, best known for its high-end 4K TVs, to expand its mobile business in the United States. Alcatel Mobile was created as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent and TCL. At this point, however, the partnership had ended and TCL was manufacturing Alcatel brand phones alone. Codeville had a new employer but a mission well known: generalize phones Alcatel.

Firefox OS started as an experimental project called Boot to Gecko in 2011. The platform consisted of a few key components; Gonk, a lower level operating system; Gecko, a rendering engine that propels Firefox; and Gaia, a user interface built with common web technologies such as HTML, CSS and Javascript. According to the former Mozilla Director of Technology in 2011, Andreas Gal, the goal was to create "a complete and autonomous operating system for the open Web".

The following year, Boot to Gecko was introduced to the world and officially renamed Firefox OS. TCL announced its support and began work on the Alcatel One Touch Fire, a low-cost smartphone designed for emerging markets in Europe and Latin America. Later, Codeville and his team worked on a Jitterbug brand phone running Firefox OS and sold through GreatCall, an American network for seniors. "The technology was ideal for what we wanted to do," remembers Codeville. "It was very light [in terms of] memory consumption and does not need a large processor ".

"The technology was ideal for what we wanted to do."

Firefox OS did not get the attention that Mozilla expected. In late 2015, the company announced that it would rework the platform around the "Internet of Things" devices. "We will explore and create prototypes of new use cases in the world of connected devices as an open source project with a clear focus on the benefits and experience of users," he said. Ari Jaaksi from Mozilla. The latest version of Firefox OS focused on mobile devices was released in May 2016.

Undeterred, TCL continued working on its Firefox OS phone internally. Codeville saw the potential on the platform and introduced his employer into an autonomous business. "That's how KaiOS was born," he said.

Alcatel Go Flip

Codeville thinks that Firefox OS failed because it was a platform for smartphone. "When you go to the smartphone market, you are immediately compared to Android," he said. "And when you do not have an ecosystem equivalent to Android, which is extremely rich, the comparison is bad for the end user." People would buy a Firefox OS phone while waiting for the same power and the same selection of apps as a low cost Android device. Mozilla did not have the necessary installation base to convince application developers and ended up disappointing consumers who wanted a similar value for money.

According to him, a web platform would be better suited to people who have never owned a smartphone. Customers who do not have access to basic applications and would rather compare the platform to so-called "stupid" phones. "We bring them something much better than the 2G phones they currently own," said Codeville. "So when you look at user satisfaction, they are really happy because they see this as a breakthrough – it's different from someone who passes an Android smartphone, of course."

Firefox OS has given the company a technological edge and, by extension, considerable financial support. KaiOS hired 30 former Mozilla employees to help develop the platform. He also brought together "many people" from TCL who had relationships and work experience with various smartphone companies, including network operators and chip makers.

"We bring them something much better than the 2G phones they currently own."

The operating system that has emerged is quite different from Firefox OS. The user interface, for example, is built around phones with physical keys and non-touch screens. The application icons are smaller and you will often see a pop-up band at the bottom of the screen with physical input options such as "Cancel" and "Good". KaiOS has optimized the platform for low-end hardware – it only requires 256 MB of RAM to run – and, most importantly, has maintained support for modern connectivity such as 3G, 4G, WiFi, GPS and the NFC.

Phones are generally associated with emerging markets such as India and Brazil. KaiOS however started in the United States with the Alcatel Go Flip brand. Codeville and his team persuaded AT & T, Sprint and T-Mobile to stock the handset because of their proven track record within TCL. These agreements then allowed the company to win a deal with Jio, a mobile phone network in India owned by a huge conglomerate called Reliance Industries. Together, they built the JioPhone, a chocolate bar-style device with a 2.4-inch display and 512 MB of RAM. It was sold with ultra competitive 4G plans.

The original JioPhone.

"It has been a huge success," said Codeville. "We have shipped millions of devices."

The popularity of the JioPhone has allowed KaiOS to court more network operators, chip makers and peripherals. "And then everything went faster and faster," he added.

The company won a project with HMD Global, the new head of the Nokia brand. The pair worked on the Nokia 8810 4G, an updated version of the iconic slider released in 1996 and featured in The Matrix. The updated phone was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2018 and immediately grabbed the headlines for its nostalgic design and intentionally primitive software.

At the same time, KaiOS has announced partnerships with Facebook, Twitter and Airfine, a developer of news, weather and horoscopes applications. He also signed an agreement with Google providing for the integration of Google Maps, Search and Speech Recognition wizard at the all-new Nokia 8110 4G.

"Everything went faster and faster."

These applications were huge for KaiOS. They legitimized the platform and allowed each phone to feel smarter and more powerful for consumers. This has also increased the perceived value of generally inexpensive hardware.

Google Assistant was a particularly important addition. For many, the voice is a faster way to type than pecking a classic keyboard from one to nine. The assistant also responds, making the platform viable for people with low literacy skills.

The WizPhone also runs Google Maps, Facebook and YouTube.

Four months later, KaiOS announced a $ 22 million financing led by Google. As part of this deal, both partners announced that they would work together to provide Google's key services to all KaiOS users, not just banana phone owners. "This funding will help accelerate the development and global deployment of KaiOS-enabled smartphones, enabling us to connect the vast population that still does not have access to the Internet, especially in emerging markets," said Codeville. .

Google's support was surprising. After all, the company had tried to seduce the emerging markets with Android One and its spiritual successor, Android Go. Both were designed as lighter and lighter versions of Google's popular operating system. They struggled, however, for their popularity in the low-cost smartphone segment. KaiOS was flying on a different plane – an aircraft with even cheaper components and price tags where Google could not compete. Instead of fighting the platform, the company decided to adopt it and make some of its key software widely available to users.

"It's a completely new type of customer for Google."

The partnership was amazing considering that KaiOS is based on the bones of Firefox, a direct competitor of the Google Chrome browser. "KaiOS is for people who do not use Android, explains Codeville, and who do not use a smartphone. So this is a completely new type of customer for [Google]. "

In July 2018, the Doro 7060 rocking phone was launched in Europe. He was joined by the JioPhone 2, a larger handset with a Blackberry type keyboard, the following month. By the end of the year, the Cat B35, Doro 7050 and MaxCom 241 models had also been released. KaiOS increased sales and expanded its mobile footprint into more global markets.

Then, in December, KaiOS announced the WizPhone, a simple handset that will cost 99,000 IDR – or 7 USD – in Indonesia. The surprisingly low cost is subsidized by Alfamart, a convenience store giant who sees a bank and e-commerce opportunity. The company will sell the WizPhone through vending machines across the country and provide them with benefits if they use the preinstalled AllWiz application to scan and pay for physical products.

Doro 7050.

Earlier this week, KaiOS announced a new round of financing led by Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital fund, with the participation of existing investors Reliance, Google and TCL. Codeville will use these additional funds to enter new markets, encourage a community of web application developers, and develop its own payment and advertising tools. "This B Series allows us to accelerate these efforts and the impact we can have with our partners to connect the next billion users," said Codeville.

Meanwhile, Google is slowly improving the wizard on KaiOS. For now, you need to open a specific application and hold down the microphone button to ask for something. A new voice input feature will allow users to access a text box – regardless of the part of the operating system – and transcribe a message with a transparent speech synthesis. In addition, the assistant will soon support the "actions" of third-party developers.

KaiOS has approximately 260 employees around the world. About 150 people work on the product, including research and development, while another 70 assist the carrier and OEM partners of the company. The others are divided between marketing, finance and the development of the broader platform.

"We would like to talk with Mozilla."

KaiOS is not a household name for the moment. Eighty million euros is an impressive installation base, but it's a ridiculous figure compared to Android and iOS. The company, however, did what Mozilla could not: find an audience for a mobile web-based platform. Curiously, Codeville did not talk with Mozilla about KaiOS or the legacy of Firefox OS. "We would like to talk with Mozilla, but not at this point, no," he said.

Smartphones are, of course, the future of most people. KaiOS has shown that multi-purpose phones can still play a role in putting groups of people online. Especially if you can offer them for less than $ 10.