Reliance AGM 2021: Jiophone Next Announced in Collaboration with Google

Jio has been a provider of affordable smartphones to the Indian market for quite some time now. This continues with the Jiophone Next, the cheapest smartphone, announced by Mukesh Ambani in Reliance AGM 2021.

The company received a $4.5 billion investment from Google last year and talked about its future plans of coming up with low-cost smartphones. The Jiophone Next will bridge the gap of the digital divide even further and enable roughly 300 million people, who are still reliant on 2G, to make a shift to 4G. The phone is supposedly powered by "extremely optimized Android" operating system. The phone will launch in September in India, followed by a global launch in the coming months.

Jio Platforms, which cater to 425 million subscribers, is positioned to add another 200 million in the next few years, said Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, at its annual general meeting Thursday. Ambani also added that the Jiophone Next will be the "most affordable smartphone" globally. The prices, however, are yet to be revealed.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company has also entered into a 5G cloud partnership with Jio Platforms.

“This new Cloud partnership will also see Reliance migrating its core retail businesses like Reliance Retail, JioMart, JioHealth, JioSaavn and others to Google Cloud’s infrastructure, taking advantage of Google’s AI/ML, ecommerce, and demand forecasting offerings. Leveraging the scalability of Google Cloud will increase reliability and performance, as well as enable these businesses to scale up to respond to customer demand,” the statement said.

Google also added, "We have worked closely with the Jio team on engineering and product development on useful voice-first features that enable these users to consume content and navigate the phone in their own language, deliver a great camera experience and get the latest Android feature and security updates."

The market for affordable smartphones has shrunken in recent times. Most affordable smartphones in the market cost somewhere around $150 dollars, the market for phones under the $100 bracket has shrunken drastically. The launch of the Jiophone Next will increase the availability and the affordability of smartphones.

In a recent report to clients, analysts at UBS said that after accounting for the recent price surge of the memory component, any smartphone priced at or under $50 is likely selling at cost.

“While this move by Jio will accelerate 2G to 4G migration, we evaluated how interesting this space would be for other smartphone manufacturers, especially key players like Xiaomi. Xiaomi, the unit market leader in smartphones in India, is unlikely to follow up with a $50 smartphone, in our view,” they wrote in the report.

Google, also, has previously made several efforts — $100 Android One smartphone program in 2014 and a low-resource intensive Android Go operating system in 2017 — to expand the reach of its handsets.

Features of Jiophone Next

Accessibility and Consumption of Content in Indian Language

For users who might  not be able to read content in their language, with a tap of a button they can now translate what’s  on their screen, and even have it read back to them in their own language. Read Aloud and  Translate Now are now OS-wide features that will work with any text on their phone screen, including web pages, apps, messages, and even photos. Using App Actions, people can utilize their Google Assistant to deliver a great experience with many of the Jio apps on this device. In  addition to asking for the latest cricket scores or a weather update, users can also ask Google  Assistant to play music on JioSaavn or check their balance on My Jio.

Camera and Optics

A fast, high-quality camera is a must-have feature for today's smartphone users, so Google and Jio’s teams have partnered closely to build an optimized experience within the phone’s Camera module resulting in great photos and videos: from clearer photos at night and in low-light situations to HDR mode that brings out wider color and dynamic range in photos, these are firsts for affordable phones in India. Google has also partnered with Snap to integrate Indian-specific Snapchat Lenses directly into the phone’s camera, and we will continue to update this experience.

New Features and Customizations

Along with support for the latest Android releases and security updates, this experience will keep getting better with new features and customizations, all delivered over the air. With Google Play Protect built-in, it has Google’s world-class security and malware protection. And with the Google Play Store, users will have access to millions of apps that people across the world use and enjoy.

The announcement looks promising, if the phone is sustainable and comes with a  good design then it might shake up the Indian smartphone market in the coming times.