The pre-bookings for the much-anticipated Reliance JioPhone will commence today, starting 5;30 p.m. onwards at the company’s retail stores, website and the Jio App. Consumers interested in purchasing the device will have to pay a booking amount of Rs 500 and the remaining balance of Rs 1000 at the time of delivery.
The feature phone will be given away on a first come first served basis, starting from September. The cost of the device “effectively” comes out to be zero as the security deposit of Rs 1,500 will be refunded to users after three years.
JioPhone is considered as the most disruptive project from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and the company is targeting the 100 million feature phone users in the country in the first year of its launch.
Currently, there are nearly 400 million 4G users in India and even if one-third of these users went ahead and upgraded, this will give rise to over 140 million new user-opportunity.
JioPhone is poised to change the dynamics of feature phone market in India and will make rivals to rethink when they will launch new devices. The feature phone segment is still a booming segment in the country and according to industry sources half a billion devices will be sold in the next five years’ time.
Called as “India ka smartphone,” the JioPhone will allow for free voice calls and SMS to customers and for using 4G data, customers need to pay Rs 153 per month. JioPhone can be connected to any TV, not just internet TV, to watch videos.
The phone is pre-loaded with applications like Jio Cinema, Jio Music and others and supports 22 languages.
