Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, might increase the price of its upcoming 4G smartphone, namely JioPhone Next. For the unaware, the JioPhone Next has been developed by Reliance Jio in partnership with Google. The aim of both the companies was to build a 4G smartphone that is not only good in terms of hardware and software but is also super affordable at the same time. But this aim of Reliance Jio and Google might go down the drain looking at the recent developments.
The telco recently announced that it is pushing the launch date of the smartphone ahead of its original launch schedule of September 10, 2021. Now the company has said that it will launch the JioPhone Next by the festive season of Diwali. The reason why Jio said that it would be delaying the launch of the smartphone is that it is still in the advanced stages of testing it with individual users.
But looking at the market situation right now, Jio might be making the smartphones for a higher cost than it had initially assumed. The prices of the components of building a smartphone have increased by a substantial margin, and many companies have launched expensive smartphones. Some even increased the price of already launched products in the market.
JioPhone Next Might Not Come With the Kind of Subsidy People Are Expecting It to
Reliance Jio’s super affordable 4G smartphone called JioPhone Next might not come at the kind of price and with subsidies that people are expecting it to come with. The telco must be facing an increased cost of manufacturing its smartphones.
Just so that the end price of the smartphone doesn’t increase, Jio might go ahead with a different policy of selling the JioPhone Next in India. The telco might decrease the subsidy it had initially planned to offer with the smartphone. If subsidies are less, the MRP doesn’t get affected, but Jio still gets to earn more out of its customers’ pockets.
This won’t be an unfair move from the telco. Reliance Jio has been trying to make India 2G free, and this smartphone is aimed to help with that. But with the increased price, just how much it will push the customers into buying it is something worth looking at. If Reliance Jio launches the JioPhone Next with bundled prepaid plans that come with amazing data benefits, that might change the game for the telco. Right now, nothing can be said. Whether Reliance Jio will go ahead with the less subsidy route or will it directly increase the price of the smartphone, only time will tell.
