Hence, after taking the telecom sector with a storm, now Reliance Jio which is especially known for its high-speed free internet, free voice calls and SMS is preparing to launch new feature phones with a price as low as Rs. 999 to Rs. 1500. Yes, it may sound crazy but, it’s true, as two of these feature phone series from Reliance Jio are expected to launch in January to March 2017. According to the site Hindustan Times, “Reliance Jio will use Spreadtrum chipsets simply to enable 4G VoLTE calls on the Rs. 1,500 feature phones. The report says, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, that Reliance Jio is “expectedly in talks” with Qualcomm and MediaTek, which account for a huge chunk of the processors used in smartphones nowadays”. Interestingly, these feature phones will work a lot like the other smartphones as well as they will also come with the unlimited Internet and calling functionality. But, the rumors states that these phones will not come with a touchscreen. So, now it sounds bit strange right. However, if this happens, then it will simply become a medium for the company to promote its bundled applications like JioMoney, video-on-demand, Live TV and Chat. Hold on, story is not finished here as if we talk about the feature of this phones then these VoLTE feature phones are expected to arrive with cameras on the front and the back as well. Currently in the market, the cheapest 4G-enabled smartphone is sold at around Rs 3000, so, to compete this price range Jio chosen the right track, as the huge part of the market is still based on the feature phones. According to the report of IDC Q3 on Indian smartphone market, “The 4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 percent over the previous quarter in CY Q3 2016. The rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G enabled smartphones in India. 7 out of 10 smartphones shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphones sold by eTailers were 4G. Even, the Reliance Jio was the fifth-biggest smartphone vendor of India in Q3 2016″. So, currently, the Reliance Jio is the only operator which offers free unlimited 4G internet, calls over VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology and SMS which have already attracted millions of customers since its commercial launch. A spokesperson said that “Jio wants to tap all the segments in the country and sees huge potential in the rural areas, which it now aims to tap with VoLTE feature phones”. However, if the Reliance Jio is able to offer these feature phones that can support 4G data and other free services offered then it’s very clear that Jio will once again hit the market with a huge storm in the coming months.
