Reliance Jio may offer cheap 4G smartphones with bundled data; to roll out 100 mn low-cost phones by December: Report

Reliance Jio is looking to outsource the manufacturing of over 100 million low-cost smartphones that will be built on Google's Android platform, Business Standard newspaper reported, citing sources.

The affordable smartphones will be bundled with data packs. Jio could launch these phones in December 2020 or early next year, the report said.

Reliance Jio and Google recently entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop entry-level affordable 4G and 5G smartphone with optimizations to the Android operating system and the Play Store to help smartphones reach more Indians.


Reliance, India's most highly-valued company, in July said Alphabet Inc's Google will invest $4.5 billion in its digital unit.

Google and Reliance Jio’s combined efforts to launch an affordable 4G and 5G smartphones could shake up the Indian smartphone space and threaten the dominance of Chinese brands who currently control over 80% of the market, analysts told ET.

The transition from 4G to 5G via this partnership could lead to consolidation in the smartphone market, directly hitting the Chinese brands focussed on the mass market, or at least, capturing a good chunk of their market shares, they added.

Qualcomm’s recent investment in Jio is also an indication that they are working closely.

The US-based chipset designer Qualcomm via its investment arm had committed Rs 730 crore for 0.15% stake in Jio Platforms this month. It had also previously launched the 4G feature phone chipset for Jio Phones.