Kai says its small operating system is about to get a lot bigger. The company has struck agreements with Airfind, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, each of which will offer its core apps to the fledgling platform. KaiOS is based on HTML5 (the old Firefox OS) and can run on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM.
Kai’s goal is to serve as the platform of choice for the 500 million feature phones sold to those who want or need something less expensive than a modern smartphone. Airfind will bring its news and weather apps to KaiOS, while Google will bring Search, Assistant and Maps, and Facebook and Twitter will each bring their namesake apps. Kai has scored some wins with hardware makers, too.
For example, Nokia’s 8110 5G “banana” phone runs KaiOS, as does the new Doro Phone 7050, and a forthcoming device from Bullitt Group. Kai also has the support of silicon makers NXP, Spreadtrum, and Qualcomm. KaiOS’ HTML5 core is easily targeted by developers.
What gives Kai a leg up on older platforms is its support for 4G. Kai expects to launch a storefront for these apps in the coming months.
