In a move, seemingly motivated by the late C.K. Prahlad's dictum about the “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, Reliance Industries, which launched the 4G VoLTE mobile service a year ago, have now targeted the huge market of basic phone users, untouched by premium services like videos on demand.
At the annual general meeting in Mumbai last week, Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani, announced, “Today, Jio is going to reinvent the conventional feature phone with a revolutionary device, an unmatched Indian innovation, 'Made in India' by young Indians and for all Indians: India ka intelligent smartphone: Jio Phone.”
“JioPhone is a truly revolutionary phone that will transform the lives of 500 million feature phone users”, he added. The phone will harness the Jio 4G network that won 100 million plus initial subscribers, most of whom are known to have stuck with the service even after it went from free to fee.
He gave details of the tariffs for the JioPhone:
On the JioPhone, voice will be free, for which it is currently charged at Rs 1.2 to 1.5 per minute in India. Jio will give them access to unlimited data on the JioPhone―for Rs 153 per month (with a Fair Usage Policy limit of 1/2 GB per day).
Jio engineers have created an innovation: a special and affordable “JioPhone TV cable” that connects JioPhone with any TV, not just a smart TV, so that all JioPhone users can enjoy viewing on the big screen of their existing television sets. This needs them to opt for an additional Rs 309 pack that would allow them to daily watch almost 3-4 hours of videos of their choice on a large screen. For users, who might find it difficult to commit to Rs 153 per month, Jio is offering two sachets―a weekly plan for Rs 53 and a two-day plan for Rs 23.
Finally, JioPhone will be available for an effective price of zero. Jio plans to collect a one-time, security deposit of Rs 1,500 with every JioPhone, refundable after 36 months upon return of the phone.
The scheme launches on August 15 with pre-booking from August 24 and delivery starting September.
“JioPhone will make the 2G feature phone obsolete,” Ambani said in conclusion.
Is it a good deal?
Giving away a phone for very little upfront payment, against a commitment to subscribe to a service for a fixed tenure, may seem radical in India, but is standard practice in the West. Operators like Verizon have used it for years, bundling a service package with a heavily subsidised iPhone.
However, it is difficult to understand why Jio would require customers to return the phone after five years. By then, customers would have paid over Rs 5,500 in monthly subscription, and the phone, in all likelihood, would be obsolete. By 2020, India will probably see early rollouts of 5G services.
Coming to the handset itself, the announcement during the AGM made jointly by Ambani scions Akash and Isha confirmed that this was a candy bar type phone with a 2.4 inch QVGA display that is 240 by 20 pixels. It is 4G LTE ready and comes pre-loaded with Jio Music, Jio Cinema and JioTV apps. A long press on number 5 activates an SOS message that gives selected recipients the phone's location. Its main attraction for feature phone users will be the voice assistant that has hitherto been available only on smart phones. It is ready for use in e-pay applications using the Universal Payment Interface. Another smart phone feature that will soon be available is NFC or Near Field Communication that will facilitate 'tap and pay' at POS terminals. Details like memory size, camera, etc. were not revealed and whatever has appeared in the media seems to be mainly hearsay.
Mukesh Ambani said the phones would be made in India in the last quarter of this year, implying that early supplies might be imported.
Is it a smartphone as Ambani flashed on screen during his speech? The JioPhone seems to be a hybrid―a feature phone with some smartphone features. The small, relatively low-resolution screen and the lack of touch would make this primarily a feature phone. It is the 4G LTE network and the much cheaper data pricing that gives it the feel of a smartphone package.
It remains to be seen if JioPhone is indeed the giant killer that early media hype is making it.
