Google and Jio are coming together to develop the affordable 5G smartphone for Indian users. This is not a new collaboration between two business giants. Google has already invested a massive amount in Jio.
Latest Development related to 5G Smartphone
As per Economic Times Report, Reliance plans to launch an affordable 5G smartphone by August-September. Currently, the company is in the R&D phase that is going to be completed by June end. Most probably, the phone launch may take place in the yearly general meeting of Reliance. Last year, Reliance did major announcements during the annual general meeting.
Talking about the progress related to 5G phone, one of the Jio Executive said:
“The development of the phone is on track. The specifications have been finalized. However, there are ongoing discussions on the operating system, given that it will require deep integration of Jio services.”
As per the latest reports, Jio is developing its OS for this phone. The name of the OS is JioOS that will work as a fork of Android. The main objective of JioOS is to optimize it for the Jio platforms like Jio TV, Jio Movies, Jio Marts, etc.
Opportunities and Challenges related to 5G Smartphone
In 2020, Google acquired a 7.73% Jio Stake with a whopping amount of Rs 33700 crore. That investment was the beginning of the strategic partnership between Reliance and Google. This device will help both companies to control their users effectively and efficiently.
Currently, Google pays around $8 billion to Apple for making Google the default search engine. With the help of such a phone, Google may avoid paying such an amount in the future. It will reach millions of users through its smartphones only.
Recently, there is a shortage of memory, display, and chipsets components that are compulsory for mobile manufacturing. So, it will not be easy to manufacture this phone in the current scenario. JioPhone, Reliance’s earlier phone, was also manufactured by US-based company Flex.
Having its own smartphone will bring a competitive advantage for Jio. First, Jio will strengthen its operations in Indian Tech Ecosystem. Second, Jio can distribute its products and services with the help of smartphones.
In the last few months, Jio business has gone down due to the negative waves against Reliance. current farmers’ protest is the main reason behind its downfall. Airtel took the advantage of the current scenario and added 3 times more subscribers than Jio in the last month.
