A Growth Engine for Europe

General Mobile is a phone manufacturer and distributor that was founded in 2005. In 2015, the company developed the Android One 4G smartphone – a competitively priced high-performance smartphone that has become the most popular Android smartphone on the Turkish market. Android One runs the latest, fastest version of Android and automatically gets the new version once it’s released. The company’s aim is to sell the devices that it developed within the Android One program in more than 30 markets. With the help of Google and the Android team, General Mobile is on track to achieve its goals. And thanks to cutting-edge software, update issues have been resolved and battery usage has been reduced. These improvements won over its customers. General Mobile used to launch 10–15 products a year, but then it radically changed its strategy and decided to launch just two to three products each year, with a shelf-life of two to three years. The company took on more employees and created a flawless, competitively priced, high-quality Android smartphone. General Mobile now generates a turnover of $1 billion from Android devices and Android One 4G has been the most successful phone to date, with almost 1 million devices sold since launch. Google’s two-year update guarantee has played a tremendous role in this success. Managing Director Muzaffer Gölcü explains: “Google has changed our lives. Our first target was to sell the phone in 30 markets and Google is helping us to achieve this goal.” General Mobile has also made a great contribution to the Turkish education system, by providing 1.5 million pupils across Turkey with Android-based tablets as part of the Fatih project – the biggest education scheme in the world. The company is now working on creating a new Android One Smartphone, which is planned to launch in 2016. General Mobile’s goal for 2016 is to reach 5 million units and expand in over 30 countries.