- India’s Reliance Industries Ltd’s billionaire CEO, Mukesh Ambani, showcased the JioPhone Next handset co-developed with Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google, to tap India’s substantial first-time smartphone user base, Bloomberg reports.
- Ambani emphasized the importance of an ultra-affordable 4G smartphone at Reliance’s annual meeting on Thursday. The device will run a re-engineered version of the Android operating system.
- Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai joined remotely to add that the JioPhone was built for India and would deliver translation features, a voice assistant, and an excellent camera.
- JioPhone’s Next handset is slated for a Sep. 10 debut ahead of India’s festival season.
- Jio has over 423 million users of voice and data services in India.
- Google Cloud technologies will form the basis for Jio’s upcoming 5G wireless solutions and serve the internal needs of online services like Reliance Retail and JioMart, Ambani said.
- Asia’s richest man aiming to turn an oil-and-petrochemicals giant into a homegrown tech leader, presented the new device amid supply chain headwinds.
- The launch comes nearly a year after Google acquired a $4.5 billion stake in Reliance Industries’ digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd.
- Global tech leaders like Google and Facebook Inc FB have jumped on the Reliance bandwagon to grab a slice of India’s 300 million first-time smartphone user market who are estimated to start accessing the internet by 2025.
- Competition looms in the form of established peers like China’s Xiaomi Corp XIACF XIACY, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus with high specs at low prices.
- Price action: GOOG shares traded higher by 0.62% at $2,544.95 on the last check Thursday.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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