Reliance JioPhone and also the JioPhone 2 have gained wide popularity and success among the masses because of their budget-friendly prices. Both these JioPhones are powered by UNISOC, the Chinese smartphone chipset maker which is formerly known as Spreadtrum. A report coming from Economic Times claims that the majority of UNISOC’s revenue comes from the sales of the JioPhone. After powering JioPhone, UNISOC is reportedly in talks with homegrown smartphone makers -- Micromax and Lava -- and aims to bring cheap 4G smartphones in India.
With the partnership with Lava and Micromax, UNISOC will target to not just depend on JioPhone for revenue but also other means. Looks like UNISEC, with this initiative, the chip market is also aiming to bring 4G connectivity to every corner of the country and allow all users to have access to the faster wireless mobile internet and connect to the world. Companies like Lava and Micromax have been coming up with budget-friendly smartphones, but sadly, they lacked some of the key features like WhatsApp, Facebook and more so, internet browsing and also were highly priced for their offerings. Phones powered by UNISOC chipset will bring these features to the cheap phones.
Other chip-making companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek gave a tough fight to UNISOC as the latter isn't as powerful as the first two. Additionally, survival has been difficult for UNISOC in this emerging marketplace because the majority of its revenue comes from booming Jio Phone sales in India.
UNISOC to Increase Revenues by Partnering with Lava and Micromax
Reports claimed that JioPhone and the JioPhone 2 had seen massive success in India. According to the latest report, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio has managed to sell nearly 40 million Jio Phone units in the country, including an average sale of 7 million every month in the last three months.
Reliance Jio launched the JioPhone last year and JioPhone 2 this year with QWERTY keypad and with both these phones the company took over the Indian feature phone market by a storm. UNISOC claims that these dirt-cheap phones paired with music and streaming services and also apps like WhatsApp, YouTube and Google and more, had increased the market share of the company by 40 per cent.
However, compared to the smartphone segment, the feature phone sales in India have been slipping for a long time now. This state worries UNISOC and hence the company is planning to make a comeback to the market by partnering with Lava and Micromax and bring cheap phones with great specs.
Price of Lava and Micromax Smartphones
These aforementioned Micromax and Lava smartphones are said to be powered by UNISOC 9863 and will come with a budget-friendly price tag. UNISOC believes that its comeback will target the Rs 6,999 price segment phones, but then the problem is, other popular smartphone makers like Realme, Xiaomi, Honor, among others, who already have some of their best phones like Redmi 5A, Realme C1 in this price. To raise its revenue, UNISOC should focus on two things -- to bring low priced phones and support apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and more.
