JioPhone Next launch postponed, to be rolled out before Diwali

The much-awaited JioPhone Next being jointly designed by Jio and Google is in advanced trial stage and will be launched before Diwali, the companies said in a release.

The Android-based smartphone was slated to be released on September 10. The phone, which Ambani termed as "most affordable smartphone", is targeted at the 300 million feature phone users of India.

"Both companies have begun testing JioPhone Next with a limited set of users for further refinement and are actively working to make it available more widely in time for the Diwali festive season. This additional time will also help mitigate the current industry-wide, global semiconductor shortages," the companies further said.


For RIL, the affordable smartphone is key to bagging a significant portion of India’s 30 crore feature phone users as Jio takes aim at its 50-crore user goal.

The new smartphone is part of a two-part deal between RIL and Google. In the first part Google took a 7.73% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 33,737 crore. The second is the pact to jointly develop an entry-level affordable smartphone.