Reliance Industries next move might be acquiring United Telelinks or forging a contract manufacturing for entry-level phones
Reliance’s Jio, when launched, took the country by storm and rushed in to become the number one network (in terms of users) in India. Now, a report by the Economic Times points out that the Ambani led company might be entering the entry-level phone manufacturing game in the country.
The news comes at a time when the PLI scheme for mobile manufacturing in India is taking final shape. The announcements of the India and global brands making it to be a part of the scheme might be announced anytime soon.
It is to be noted here that Reliance’s Jio Platforms has recently raised funding from the likes of Google and Facebook. Jio Platforms is the telecom technology arm of Reliance Industries.
Reliance has sold handsets in India
The fact that Reliance has one of the largest offline chain for selling phones in the country further cements the fact that sooner or later the compant might introduce entry-level smartphones bundled with Jio. Reliance, in the past, has sold devices which were sourced through contract manufacturing.
Ambani, at the 43rd AGM of Reliance Industries Liited, had noted about the plans of expansion in the handset market. Jio, as per Ambani, is targeting 500 million mobile customers by the end of 2023. The new handsets, if produced, might come powered by Google.
India’s smartphone shipments grew a modest four pecent YoY to reach a little over 31 Million units in Q1 2020, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. January and February shipments grew annually due to new launches and aggressive promotions. While the smartphone market registered YoY growth, the feature phone market saw a decline of around 24 per cent YoY in Q1 2020 implying consumers are transitioning to smartphones.
India is now considered as the second largest handset devices market in the world. Around 158 million phones shipped to the country in 2019.
