Reliance Jio, Google Partnership Might Disrupt Indian Smartphone Market

Chinese smartphone makers have already captured 80 percent of the market in India. These companies are very aggressive in terms of bringing new smartphones at affordable prices. However, these smartphone makers are likely to feel some pressure as Reliance Jio has joined forces with Google to bring 4G and 5G smartphones in the country.

The new and upcoming smartphone from this partnership is expected to challenge all leading brands as Reliance Jio is known for disrupting or bringing affordable services in the country.

"If history is anything to go by, Reliance will undercut other brands and pose a real threat to the low-end smartphone market," Rushabh Doshi of tech researcher at Canalys was quoted by Reuters.

The telecom operator has disrupted the 2G handset market after launching the JioPhone and the JioPhone 2, where there are users that are using the internet first time. In fact, there are high chances that the Chinese smartphone maker, such as Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo, Oppo, and OnePlus might decrease the prices of their products in the coming days.

"They (the Chinese players) are likely to cut their price to compete, and their margins could shrink," former India head of contract manufacturers Wistron and Flextronics, A Gururaj was quoted by the agency. Adding to that, "I see the Google-Jio phone as a big hit."

Reliance Jio's partnerships with Google and Qualcomm show that it is quite serious about bringing new smartphones in the country. But still, the company has not shared anything about the upcoming product. On the other hand, it is expected that it will have all Jio apps, including Jio Cinema and JioSaavn. It is likely to have apps related to health and jobs.

Apart from launching a smartphone, the telecom operator has announced a deal worth Rs. 33, 737 crore, where the search engine giant is also buying its 7.73 percent stake. Besides, both will work on Android-based OS to launch affordable handsets.