Reliance Jio and Google are allegedly collaborating to launch an affordable Android smartphone. According to reports, the handset will exclusively work on former’s network and get updates directly from the latter. The release date is expected to be sometime around the last quarter of 2017.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google had actually hinted at a super cheap Android handset during his visit to India a month ago. He emphasized that affordable smartphones are a necessity for the country. Mr. Pichai even went on to say that entry-level Android devices should start from $30 (Rs. 1985 approx.) in the Indian subcontinent.
Reliance Jio believes in the same principle. It too thinks that India needs super affordable smartphones. Jio’s sister company LYF has somewhat turned it into reality by launching 4G VoLTE phones at under Rs. 3000. This affordable pricing along with Jio’s disruptive plans has quickly gifted LYF significant market shares in the country.
Google had also tried launching its range of affordable smartphones named as Android One. But unfortunately, it was not much of success. Now, the search engine giant is apparently trying to collaborate with Reliance Jio to make its dreams come true.
Speaking about the details about the expected range of affordable smartphones, we expect that they will boast 4G LTE connectivity along with VoLTE and run on the vanilla Android operating system. However, they will certainly come with an array of preinstalled applications, both from Reliance Jio as well as Google.
The collaborating companies are expected to sell the future smartphones at almost zero profit margin or might even at a loss. They will recover the cost by selling services. The phones may be locked to Reliance Jio, and the customers shall have no way but to recharge with Jio’s packages. It will be a win-win situation for Google too as it earns revenue by selling advertisements on every Android device.
