Reliance’s Jio Lyf phones have been in the smartphone space in India for quite some time. The company has since been actively looking to tap the rural and tier-III markets for its data services and mobile business. According to a report by Economic Times, Jio may soon launch a series of feature phones with 4G VoLTE in a bid to attract millions of users to its telecom venture Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Pricing for these devices could be as low as Rs 1,000 and will come bundled with unlimited voice and video calling, alongside digital content. Jio is the only telecom company which is offering Voice-over-LTE to make calls, has added over 25 million subscribers in the shortest time starting from September 5 to reaching their target of 100 million — equivalent to about 38 per cent of the telecom market leader Bharti Airtel’s 260 million subscribers in the country.
The 4G telco is working with domestic handset maker Lava International and Chinese OEMs to manufacture these feature phones. Jio is said to be subsidising a part of the selling price to make the 4G feature phones at Rs 1,000. The initial batch of feature phone could have branding from Jio and Lava and will be sold through their respective retail channels to reach a larger audience.
There will be two feature phones, according to reports, priced at Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. Reliance is planning to release these phones in the first quarter of 2017. Although these are feature phones, which mean there is no touchscreen, they will be able to run 4G data and will be capable of accessing internet.
As of now, one of the cheapest 4G phones on sale in India is priced around Rs 3,000. With the launch of feature phones, Reliance Jio will be able to offer the affordability of a feature phone with 4G VoLTE technology along with free voice calls.
According to IDC’s Q3 report on the Indian Smartphone market, “The 4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 per cent over previous quarter in CY Q3 2016. Rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G enabled smartphone in India. 7 out of 10 smartphones shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphones sold by ecommerce websites were 4G.”
Reliance Jio is on the fifth position in the Indian smartphone market with a total of 7 per cent, which means an approximate 20 per cent growth over previous quarters. These numbers are supposed to grow in the future, when Reliance Jio commercially launches its 4G services along with other new services.
Reliance Industries may soon launch feature phones with VOLTE support in India. The move is aimed at introducing a new category of mobile devices in India and at the same time increasing Reliance Jio’s user base by targeting users from tier-2 and tier-3 towns, who use cellphones primarily for making calls. The move also targets first-time data users.
The Economic Times quoted sources who stated that the new devices would be priced from Rs 1000 to Rs 15000 and will have unlimited voice and video calling. “Jio wants to tap all the segments in the country and sees huge potential in the rural areas, which it now aims to tap with VoLTE feature phones,” stated a source “The 2G feature phone is still a big market in India,” he added.
Today Reliance Jio is the only telecom major in India to offer VoLTE only network and has garnered over 25 million users since the launch of its services on September 5 2016. The company is now targeting 100 million subscribers by March 2017, and tapping customers who use feature phones is essential to achieve this target. Currently, VoLTE is offered on most smartphones.
“If Jio launches VoLTE feature phones at Rs 1,000, it can potentially shake up the market because the target audience in that segment may prefer to choose phones with free calling inbuilt,” Navkendar Singh, senior research manager with International Data Corp told ET.
Another source revealed that Reliance may launch two feature phones priced at Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 during the January-March 2017 period. The devices will work much like smartphones and will use data to make calls, the only difference being that feature phones do not have touchscreens.
The company is working with handset maker Lava International and some Chinese manufacturers to build the devices. According to ET, the company will subsidise some of the selling price to ensure that the 4G VOLTE feature phones will be available to the public at about Rs 1,000 (about $15). The cost of making the phones is about $25 and they are usually sold for about Rs 2,500.
Jio may also soon face competition for feature phone users. Chinese handset manufacturer Transsion, which sells feature phones in Africa under the Itel brand, has revealed its intentions for bringing 4G feature phones in India by April 2017. Sudhir Mathur, head of Itel India, stated “The platform for this technology is being tested and all the development is happening in China….We’re watching Reliance closely, for their model will shape our strategy.”
Jio’s VoLTE feature phones will run on Android operating systems and will sport a keypad and rear and front cameras. These devices will also come armed with Jio’s content applications such as Jio Chat, Live TV and video on demand and Jio Money Wallet, Jio’s digital wallet service. For VOLTE support, the devices will use chipsets that Jio may source from Chinese company Spreadtrum or from Qualcomm and Mediatek sources stated.
A few weeks back, we heard some rumors mentioning Reliance to launch feature phone with VoLTE support. Though there is very little information at that time, now we got some update. The device will be launched at just Rs. 999 and includes unlimited voice and video calls for a limited time. Since Jio works on VoLTE supported devices, it might not acquire more market share in the rural areas where not many of them will be using 4G smartphones. While the feature phone market is decreasing day by day, still it has a substantial market share in the emerging markets like India. Almost 65% of the mobile phone users in India still uses feature phones. By launching the affordable feature phone, the company might gain a little more market share that helps in reaching its 100 million subscriber mark by the time of commercial launch.
While there are some decent feature phones from Nokia and Samsung, they can only support 3G HSPA with which Jio 4G SIM will not be compatible. Even the pricing will be a key factor since not many will be purchasing a new phone just to use Jio 4G SIM. Reliance’s 4G smartphone brand, LYF also launched cheapest 4G smartphones priced at just Rs. 2,999. These devices can be a good alternative for the first time smartphone users who are restricted with a limited budget. This is also the time, most of the Indians will be shifting from feature phone to a smartphone and Jio’s basic Rs. 150 plan offers unlimited night data (2am – 5am), voice calls, and SMS. Now the same plans cannot be offered for feature phone users as most of them might never do a recharge of Rs.150 per month.
Apart from the Rs. 999 priced feature phone, the company might also bring one more device priced at Rs. 1,500 with upgraded specifications. Both these devices will be launched in early 2017 and offer browsing internet along with making voice and video calls. Lava and Chine based OEM will be manufacturing these devices and are said to cost Rs. 2,500 per unit. The same device will be subsidized by Jio to bring the selling price as low as Rs. 999. These phones will not be launched under LYF brand, instead, they will come with Jio and Lava branding. As we earlier mentioned, the device will be powered by Spreadtrum processors. Just like the regular smartphone, we can find the rear and front cameras. Instead of the touchscreen, the devices will be equipped with the keyboard though we are not sure whether there will be a T9 or QWERTY keyboard.
The Jio apps like Jio Wallet, Jio Play, and Jio Music will be pre-installed on the devices. All these details are yet to be confirmed by the company official, so take this with a pinch of salt until the official launch. If you are looking for affordable mobile phones that support Jio 4G SIM, take a look at the LYF Flame series smartphones that are currently retailing at just Rs. 2,999. These devices come with Jio Welcome Offer including unlimited 4G data (FUP@4GB), voice calls, and SMS. All the Jio suite of apps will be available for Jio users for free until December 2017.
