The upcoming Jio Phone is set to be powered by Android OS (Express Photo)Reliance Jio is set to tap into the budget smartphone market as it is looking to outsource the manufacturing of more than 10 crore smartphones based on Android OS. The smartphone will come along with data packs and is set to be launched in December 2020 or in the first quarter of 2021 according to a report by Business Standard.
Earlier this year in July, Alphabet’s Google said it will invest 4.5 billion dollars (Rs 3,30,02,79,75,000). The upcoming affordable smartphone was promised by Reliance owner Mukesh Ambani in the company’s Annual General Meeting virtual event. With this move, Reliance is looking to make India a “2G-mukt Bharat”. This smartphone can either support 4G or 5G network. However, 5G is yet to be launched in India by any telecom company despite several 5G smartphones available in the Indian market.
In the AGM meeting, Reliance also revealed that it has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch which will be ready for trials as soon as the 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year.
“Jio has created a complete 5G solution from scratch, that will enable us to launch a world-class 5G service in India, using 100 per cent homegrown technologies and solutions,” Ambani said.
There is no information about the design, camera, or the processor used by the upcoming 4G/5G phone. But, it will take on the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Motorola, and others in the affordable segment.
This will also be a major upgrade to the Jio Phone which ran on the Linux-based KaiOS platform instead of Android. However, it is to be noted that this operating system was used on a 4G feature phone. The current version of the phone, Jio Phone 2 has a QWERTY keypad, 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display, and is priced at Rs 2,999.
Express Tech is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@expresstechie) and stay updated with the latest tech news