Reliance Group which disrupted the Indian telecom sector by introducing highly affordable CDMA phone way back in 2002 under RCom banner may do the same again for 4G telephony in India. The fledgling Reliance Jio which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries is planning to bring Reliance Jio 4G LTE smartphone. Tech blog TechPP has posted few images revealing design as well inside of the upcoming feature phone. According to tech portal, the phone will be launched under Jio’s LYF brand. The images suggest a candy bar design and could could support video-calling, an app store, microSD card, the ability to load Jio apps and more.
According to reports, Reliance Jio’s LYF 4G VoLTE feature phone will feature a 2.4-inch colour screen, and a dedicated button in the center for flash light. The device may come with a textured back, and on the rear will be a 2MP camera. There will be a VGA camera on the front. The device could have 512 MB RAM and 4 GB internal storage. The dual SIM phone will support nano-SIM card, and there will be a dedicated slot for microSD card (expandable up to 128 GB).
Reliance Jio’s LYF 4G VoLTE feature phone is reported to come with an in-built Voice Assistant. The assistant will support Indian languages, and users will be able to use it for weather-related, and more queries. Also, the feature phone will be optimised to run a host of Jio apps , along with several others like Facebook and WhatsApp. We’re expecting the functionalities will be limited given this is a feature phone, but details are unclear at this moment.
Earlier, citing a report from HSBC research, business daily Economic Times had reported that Reliance Jio could launch a smartphone with a price tag of as low as ₹500 on the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Limited which is scheduled for July 21 in Mumbai but TechPP suggests that the price could be little more, may be Rs 1500.
Also, the business daily Financial Express had reported that Reliance Jio was in talks with Chinese manufacturers like the Techchain and Uniscope for the its 4G phone. There were rumours that the phone could launch at ₹1500 previously. Many experts believe that a ₹500 4G feature phone that support high-speed data network could bring a data revolution in India – something similar to what Jio sibling RCom did in 2002, when it launched highly affordable CDMA phone and call services in India which lead many incumbent to change their go-to-market and price strategy.
