What does it mean that a particular phone is smart? There are many conflicting views on exact definition. Most of them include: ability to connect to the internet, support for 3rd party apps, a touch screen.
And what if I told you, that there are phones out there, that were released in 2018, can connect to the internet via LTE, support Google Apps, but have no touch functionality whatsoever?
Surely that would be impossible on Android, which relies almost exclusively on touch input. That's why Google invested over 20 billions of dollars into developing KaiOS.
KaiOS can run on really weak hardware, does not require a touch screen, supports most Google Apps such as Google Maps and Gmail, and even allows 3rd party apps such as WhatsApp via KaiStore (similar to Google Play Store on Android).
Why even bother? - you may ask. There are plenty of decent smartphones that cost about 30€. Those KaiOS phones cost 15€ and don't offer nearly as much value as a true Android phone. Just for 15€ more you get apps like Microsoft Office, games like Need For Speed No Limits, VR experiences, just to name a few. And you don't change your phone every day. Surely no-one would be so stingy to give up so many features just to save a few Euros. It's better to just skip a Big Mac menu or two, right?
It's not that simple. In Europe, I don't imagine those phones will ever gain huge popularity. But there is only about 0.5 billion people on Europe. The world's population is over 7.5 billion. There are many places all around the world, where 15€ is a lot of money. And billions of people thanks to Kai OS are now closer than ever to getting online, and enjoying many benefits of the technological revolution of 21st century.
You can check out offers for smartphones with Kai OS here (please note that most of existing KaiOS phones were not released in Europe yet, and those that are available are very overpriced)
https://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_ex_kw=&_mPrRngCbx=1&_nkw=KaiOS&_sacat=15032&_sop=12&_udhi=&_udlo=&_fosrp=1