Reliance Jio Working on an Entry-Level 4G Smartphone: Spreadtrum

Recently, it was reported that Reliance Jio is working on a low-cost 4G smartphone, and now, the chipmaker, Spreadtrum confirmed that Jio is indeed readying a low-cost 4G smartphone. Spreadtrum is in the process of supplying components for the handset.

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Currently, Spreadtrum is in the process of supplying chips for 10 million 4G feature phones by the end of the year, which Jio will be selling in India. Leo Li, Spreadtrum’s chief executive officer has confirmed this news to Economic Times during his visit to India.

“Jio is looking at the lowest-costing smartphone possible, maybe a 4-inch screen, and the lowest-possible-costing 4G feature phones as well,” Li said in an interaction with ET during his week-long visit to India. The publication also cites that Jio did not respond to the queries sent by them.

Leo Li also said that India is the most important market for the chipmaker globally, especially looking at the volume of feature phones sold in the country every year, and Reliance Jio is one of the chief architects in pushing the feature phone market further with the JioPhone.

“They’re (Jio) the only ones pushing featurephones this hard. We work very closely with Jio, we provide 4G featurephones (chips) which are the lowest costing in the world. We will be selling about 10 million devices to them by the year end,” Li said to the publication.

Li, however, did not reveal when Jio will launch the low-cost smartphone, but he confirmed the existence of the device though, in-line with the previous rumour.