India’s most valuable company is in talks with domestic assemblers to make a version of its Jio phone that would run on Google’s Android and cost about 4,000 rupees , said the people, asking not to be identified since the plans are private. The inexpensive phones will be marketed with low-cost wireless plans from Reliance Jio, the parent company’s carrier, they said.
Reliance rival Bharti Airtel is also in talks with assemblers to build its own 4G device, local media has reported. TheReliance in July struck a broad alliance with Google, in which the Alphabet Inc unit would invest US$4.5bil and cooperate on technology initiatives. The partnership is still under regulatory review so Reliance is proceeding with the mobile phone initiative on its own for now.
“Jio has an opportunity to target more than half billion Indians who don’t own a smartphone and trigger a blue ocean market opportunity,” said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research. “With Reliance expected to work with Indian vendors, Chinese brands will lose out on a potential opportunity and market share.”
Reliance’s fourth-generation wireless gadgets – one tier below 5G – are aimed at the estimated 350 million users of basic or feature phones that now dominate India’s industry. Speaking at an industry event a few weeks ago, Ambani said millions were “trapped in the 2G era”.