On a mission to bring millions of users over to the 4G network and to free India from outdated connectivity standards, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. Mukesh Ambani and Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai jointly announced the world’s most affordable smartphone named JioPhone Next under its subsidiary Jio Platforms at the company’s 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held virtually on Thursday due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.
The smartphone is developed in partnership with Google, Jio Platforms’ strategic investor. To recall, Google last year invested Rs. 33,737 crores in Jio Platforms for a 7.73 percent stake as part of its India Digitization Fund. It was the biggest-ever investment by Google in an Indian company.
JioPhone Next will be available to purchase starting September 10 in India. The price of the smartphone is yet to be revealed and also the hardware specifications but Ambani did note that it will be the “cheapest smartphone by far in India and around the world”.
Sundar Pichai made a pre-recorded statement at the virtual event explaining the phone’s software and said that the teams at Google “have optimized a version of Android OS especially for this device.” The Android OS that Sundar is talking about could be Android Go which was designed for low-end smartphones. JioPhone Next will support android updates that will be delivered over time as and when required.
The smartphone is specifically designed for entry-level users looking for an upgrade to a 4G-enabled smartphone. It will come pre-loaded with features like Google Assistant, automatic read-aloud of screen text, language translation, smart camera with augmented reality filters, and much more. The phone has a camera and an LED flash on the rear and there’s also a front camera that will allow users to make video calls and capture memories.
“It is built for India and it will open up new possibilities for millions of new users who will experience the internet for the very first time. And we can’t wait to show you the device later this year,” said Sundar Pichai.
According to Ambani, there are still nearly 300 million Indian mobile users utilizing the outdated 2G network and are unable to escape it because of unaffordable 4G smartphones in the market. This is not the first time that Jio came up with an affordable 4G phone as the company already introduced a smart feature phone called Jio Phone back in 2017 which was updated to Jio Phone 2 in 2018.
