Telecom giant Jio might launch low-cost smartphones in the coming few months. The phones will run on Google’s Android Operating system out of the box and will also come pre-bundled with data packs.
A news report by Bussiness Standard suggest that we might start seeing these phones as early as December 2020. The current speculations are, Google’s Rs 33,102 crore investment is the reason for this decision.the report further said that the giant is now looking to outsource the manufacturing of more than 10 crore smartphones which is mind-boggling.
Owner of the Reliance Group and one of the richest individual in the world Mukesh Ambani said that Google would build an Android operating system (OS) to power a low-cost “4G or even 5G” smartphone that Reliance would design.
If the phones are priced just as Jio’s data plans, the company will more likely disrupt the market and impose challenges on Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, BBK Electronics (OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme) that are currently dominating the Indian smartphone market.
Not only would this help Jio to establish a great smartphone user base but also help gain subscribers to tackle other major operators like Airtel and Vi who still have a lot of users under their umbrellas who still use basic 2G feature phones.
As Qualcomm has also invested in Jio, we shouldn’t be surprises if the upcoming “Jio phones” come with Snapdragon processors under the hood. Overall, it will be interesting to see how or if Jio manages to beat some of the leading mobile manufacturers in India. Even if it doesn’t, low cost phones might help more people in India to connect to the internet and discover a lot of opportunities.