Highlights:
- Reliance Jio could launch a low cost Android powered phone by December
- Back in July, Mukesh Ambani said the Google will build Android version to power low-cost 4G/ 5G smartphone
- Reliance would design the smartphone inhouse
- Reliance’s ambition is to hand a smartphone to every Indian
The telecom unit of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Jio, is looking to outsource the manufacturing of more than 10 crore low-cost smartphones which will be powered by Google’s Android OS as per the newspaper Business Standard which cited sources.
The phone, which will be bundled with the data packs, could be launched as soon as December 2020 as per the reports in the newspaper dated 9th September 2020.
Reliance which is the most highly-valued company in India, back in July said that tech giant Google is going to invest $ 4.5 billion or around Rs 33,102 crore in its digital unit.
Indian richest man, Mukesh Ambani, who leads Reliance Industries Limited, in July, said that Google would build an Andoird Operating System (OS) which will power the low-cost “4G and even 5G” smartphones which will be designed by Reliance.
The new phone is set to pose a major challenge to Chinese vendors such as Xiaomi and BBK Electronics, owner of the Realme, Oppo, and Vivo brands that currently dominate a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,713 crores) market for sub-$100 (roughly Rs. 7,360) smartphones in India.
Powered by a clever mix of Bollywood, cricket-driven marketing and product features such as powerful cameras, the Chinese firms sell roughly eight of every 10 smartphones in the country.
Reliance executed a similar plan in 2017 with the launch of the Jio Phone, a no-frills device that gave users internet access for as little as $20 (roughly Rs. 1,470). Jio Phone now has more 100 million users, many of whom are internet first-timers.
Reliance’s ambition to hand a smartphone to every Indian could also win subscribers from telecoms rivals Vi (Vodafone Idea) and Bharti Airtel, who still have hundreds of millions of users with old-style feature phones on basic 2G networks.
Reliance has sold nearly 33 percent of its digital arm, Jio Platforms, to raise Rs. 152,000 crores and has won the backing of global financial and tech investors including, Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm.
