Today, we see that the Mobile OS sector is captured by two major players. Android and iOS.
However, these OS require hardware that is expensive and has a comparatively poorer battery life compared to feature phones.
That is where KaiOS comes in. It transforms the feature phones into semi-smartphones that last multiple times longer than smartphones in terms of battery life and are inexpensive compared to them.
The KaiOS has matured into a global presence and its users already greater than iOS mobile users in India.
"Our operating system has already shipped on over 50 million phones in Canada, the US, Asia and Europe through partnerships with leading ODM/OEMs and carriers, such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Reliance Jio, HMD, Micromax, Doro, Bullitt, Maxcom, MTN, Orange, and China Mobile." - From KaiOS website
KaiOS was designed to be run on hardware that was available on feature phones. The new Nokia feature phone series (Nokia 8110, Nokia 2720, Nokia 800 tough, etc), the Jio Phone and Jio Phone 2.
The Userbase of KaiOS is large and is still growing. It has captured the market in African countries, and India. This OS specifically improves the user experience on a feature phone and provides features that are usually available only on smartphones.
Full list of KaiOS phones
By mid-2019, KaiOS will be running on over 150 million devices around the world.
The OS provides a smoother user interface by utilizing the Google Voice Assistant and its Voice to Text converter. This speeds up the text based inputs and improves the user experience.
The OS has its own app store which has Google Maps, Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, Twitter, UC Browser, Xender, etc.(To name a few Popular ones) The KaiOS team is working on bringing more apps to the OS.
Full list of apps
The Jio Phones run on KaiOS. However, the app store on Jio Phones is maintained by Reliance Jio and is called Jio store. KaiStore is not accessible on Jio Phone.
The OS has tools and utilities like QR Reader, Counter, To Do list which are quite nifty to use.
You can make apps on KaiOS. To start making KaiOS apps, you have to know HTML 5, CSS and Javascript (These are run on Gecko Runtime).
Check out their Developer portal
Phones like these offer a potential as a backup phone or a secondary phone which can be used whenever you are travelling abroad and do not want to risk losing your smartphone and also need to stay in touch, etc.
Considering their functionality and inexpensiveness it is elegant as a secondary phone to those who already are using a smartphone.
KaiOS website