Reliance Jio on Tuesday reassured users that contrary to rumours, it is not halting production of the Jio phone and will soon announce the booking date for the next phones. The statement comes a day after media reports quoting company insiders said that Jio has stopped further production of the JioPhone and is currently working on an Android model to counter other telecom majors like Bharti Airtel.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have collaborated with home-grown smartphone makers to roll-out ultra-affordable smartphones bundled with various cashback offers, which brings down the effective cost of smartphones on par with feature phones.
Recently, Airtel collaborated with Karbonn Mobiles and Celkon to roll-out smartphones bundled with calls and data offer, and cashback scheme. The smartphone’s effective cost is less than Rs 1,600 and, therefore, these phones possess greater challenge to feature phones with limited app support.
“Reliance Jio is committed to fulfilling the country’s digital vision and the company will soon announce the next JioPhone booking date,” said the company in an official statement to the Economic Times.
JioPhone went on pre-registrations in August and according to the company almost 6 million people registered for India’s first 4G-feature phone. The company has started the delivery process of the phone in batches and the first batch has already been deployed to buyers.
Currently, the pre-registration or the registration of the JioPhone is put on hold until the first batch of the devices are delivered to the customers who pre-registered for it.