How Can JioPhone Next Play Important Role In Indian Handset Market?

Reliance Jio's upcoming smartphone JioPhone Next is likely to attract feature phone users to a smartphone as per a new report by Counterpoint Research. The report said the JioPhone Next is expected to increase the overall shipment in 2021 in India.

According to the report the JioPhone Next phone is likely to be priced below $75, which has not seen major activity for two years.

"If it works as expected, we might see the Indian market entering a period of hyper-growth...The country has a considerable installed base of 320 million feature phone users. Getting these feature phone users is the key to realizing the full potential of India's smartphone opportunity," it added.

For the unaware, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani also asserted that the JioPhone Next is essential to make India 2G free.

"While India's digital economy is already on the rise, there is significant headroom for growth. Jio and Google are addressing the critical challenge of smartphone affordability for current feature phone users by providing them with a strong device value proposition to upgrade to," CMR Head (Industry Intelligence Group) Prabhu Ram said.

Several reports claim that the upcoming smartphone is likely to be priced under Rs. 4,000. The JioPhone Next might be priced at Rs. 3,499. However, considering the record of Reliance Jio, buyers can expect upcoming devices under Rs. 3,000 as the company wants to a covert large number of 2G users to its 4G services.

Meanwhile, the research firm pointed out that smartphone shipments are likely to hit a mark of 173 million this year, which is a 14 percent year-on-year high as the market has recovered after the second wave of COVID-19. The same trend is expected to continue during the festive season.

It is worth noting that Reliance Jio wants to capture 5G percent in the telecom sector and for that, they have sold their stake to several tech companies, especially Google. The Google and Jio partnership is expected to disrupt the mobile sector of India as both are manufacturing smartphones at ultra-affordable prices.

Besides, both are expected to develop 5G smartphones in the coming months, which means that they want to capture the mobile sector.