Reliance Retail is planning an ultra low-priced Android Go OS-based 4G VoLTE smartphone under the LYF brand in partnership with Taiwanese chipset maker MediaTek, a move aimed at netting more subscribers for the new entrant amid stiff competition from India’s older telcos.
People familiar with the matter said Reliance Industries is likely to adopt a similar approach to what it did for the Jio Phone — the 4G VoLTE feature phone — and offer the smartphone bundled with a Reliance Jio SIM card, aimed at bringing the costs to unseen levels for a such a smart device.
According to Economic Times, currently, India’s older operators have been tying up with smartphone makers to bring prices down of 4G devices to under `1,500 through cash backs. But the new Jio smartphone can go far under that price, the people said. “Reliance may soon place orders for millions of units for the (4G smartphone) device,” one of the people said. “Since Jio believes in subsidising smartphones for mass uptake, they are most likely to take the same approach for their Android Go smartphone.”
The move falls in line with Jio’s efforts to target some 500 million of the featurephone users that are to yet migrate to smartphones due to reasons of cost and use cases. Jio has been trying to tap similar users through the Jio Phone as well. The chipset vendor has confirmed its association with the Mukesh Ambani-led 4G telecom operator.
“Jio is bullish on Android Go smartphone, and is working with us and the ODM partners to bring the device to the market in coming months. They have really pushed us to deliver Android Go-based device as soon as possible,” Kuldeep Malik, country head for corporate sales international at MediaTek India, told ET. Not just Jio, but a slew of domestic and Chinese handset players are planning to bring their Android Go-based affordable smartphones to the market.
