WHAT IS KaiOS?
KaiOS is a mobile operating system, based on Linux, for keypad feature phones. It is developed by KaiOS Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited; a company based in Kowloon, Hong Kong, with the largest shareholder being the Chinese multinational electronics conglomerate TCL Corporation. KaiOS is forked from B2G OS (Boot to Gecko OS), an open-source community-driven fork of Firefox OS, which was discontinued by Mozilla in 2016.
The primary features of KaiOS bring support for 4G LTE E, VoLTE, GPS, and Wi-Fi; with HTML5-based apps and longer battery life to non-touchscreen devices with optimised user interface, less memory and energy consumption. It also features over-the-air updates (OTA updates). A dedicated app marketplace (KaiStore) enables users to download mobile applications, or 'apps'. Some services are preloaded as HTML5 applications, including Facebook and YouTube. As of 1 April 2020, there are 500+ apps in KaiStore. The mobile operating system is comparatively lightweight on hardware resource usage and can run on devices with just 256 megabytes (MB) of memory.
WHEN HAS IT EMERGED?
The operating system first appeared in 2017; 4 years ago, and is developed by KaiOS Technologies Inc., a Kowloon, Hong Kong-based company headed by CEO Sebastien Codeville, with offices in other countries. In June 2018, Google invested US$22 million in the operating system. India-based telecom operator Reliance Jio also invested $7 million for a 16% stake in the company. In May 2019, KaiOS raised an additional US$50 million from Cathay Innovation, and previous investors Google and TCL Holdings.
KaiOS was founded in 2016 and launched in 2017 with a unique focus on feature phones, a category that had not seen any innovation for over a decade. We’re a diverse team from internet, telecoms, and hardware backgrounds, working on one mission: to close the digital divide.
In market share study results announced in May 2018, KaiOS beat Apple's iOS for second place in India, while Android dominates with 71%, albeit down by 9%. KaiOS growth is being largely attributed to the popularity of the competitively priced Jio phone. In Q1 2018, 23 million KaiOS devices were released.
In March 2020, Mozilla and KaiOS Technologies announced a partnership to update KaiOS with a modern version of the Gecko browser engine, and a more closely aligned testing infrastructure.
This change should give KaiOS four years worth of performance and security improvements and new features, including TLS 1.3, WebAssembly, WebGL 2.0, Progressive Web Apps, new video codecs like WebP, AV1, and modern JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) features.
Partnerships
As of February 2018, KaiOS Technologies has partnered with Mozilla, Airfind, Facebook, Google, Bullitt, Doro, HMD Global, Micromax, NXP, Spreadtrum, Qualcomm, Jio, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Orange S.A.
In March 2020, KaiOS Technologies partnered with Mozilla to bring the modern version of the Gecko browser engine to future KaiOS builds.
Release History
Version 1.0
Released on March 2017
Updates: First KaiOS smart feature flip phone
Version 2.0
Released in July 2017
Updates: Major core upgrade to Gecko 48
Version 2.5.0
Released in November 2017
Updates: Services and 3rd party apps
Version 2.5.1
Updates: Released on July 2018
KaiStore, KaiAccount, and advanced features, WhatsApp
Version 2.5.1.1
Released in September 2018
Updates: Minor System Updates
Version 2.5.2
Released in December 2018
Updates: KaiAds and SIMbased cust
Version 2.5.3
Released on July 2019
Updates: Major service upgrades, location service enhancement
Version 2.5.3.1
Released on February 2020
Updates: Minor system updates, notification enhancement
Version 2.5.3.2
Released on May 2020
Updates: Device Financing Program, Dual SIM LTE support
Version 2.5.4
Released on August 2020
Updates: LF 1.6 integration, North America requirement
Version 3.0
Released on December 2020
Updates: Major platform Upgrade, Gecko upgrade
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