E-commerce giant Amazon has quietly launched lite Internet, a web browser for Android devices in India. Amazon clams it is fast, occupies less storage space on a user’s device and does not collect private data like other browsers.
The browser has been available on the Google Play Store since March and has less than 1,000 downloads so far. Also, the company is yet to officially announce the launch of the browser, according to a report in TechCrunch.
“Internet browser is lighter than the competition. This means more storage to download the latest videos and music from your favourite sites. Get new features regularly, with updates so small you may even decide to download them with your data plan,” reads the description for the browser on the Play Store.
Amazon did not respond to queries regarding the new browser.
Internet joins the other lite applications such as Google and Facebook as its size is less than 2MB. These apps are built to appeal to users of low-end devices who encounter slow internet speeds and buy smaller sachets of data from providers.
The application is only available to users in India for the time being, and is supported on devices running Android 5.0 or higher versions.
Amazon claim that Internet does not store any private data compared to other browsers seem to have gained attraction of many users as the news of Facebook’s data breach is still doing rounds and has alerted users on data privacy issue.
The description of the app shows that the homepage of the browser will be populated by cricket, entertainment and news from top sources.
Amazon already has Silk browser for the Android platform that runs on its Kindle tablets, but that app isn’t available on the Amazon app store in India.
Internet could be part of Amazon’s larger strategy to customise its offerings for its users in India as the app seems to be customized for an Indian user. Amazon smart speakers, Echo, also targets an Indian audience and the company has also tied up extensively with regional music producers to bring the right content on its Prime Music, an add-on service for Prime customers.
