Reliance Jio will launch a budget laptop priced at $184 (around Rs 15,000) with an embedded 4G SIM card, aiming to replicate the success of its low-cost JioPhone in India’s highly price-sensitive market, two sources told Reuters.
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate has partnered with global giants Qualcomm and Microsoft for the JioBook, with the former’s computing chips based on Arm’s technology and the Windows OS maker providing support for some apps.
Jio, India’s largest telecom carrier with more than 420 million subscribers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The laptop will be available to enterprise customers such as schools and government organizations from this month, with a consumer launch expected in the next three months, sources said. Like the JioPhone, a 5G-enabled version will follow.
“It will be as big as the JioPhone,” a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Since its launch late last year, the handset has been the best-selling sub-$100 (around Rs. 8,200) smartphone in India, accounting for a fifth of the market in the last three quarters. Accordingly To counterpoint.
The JioBook will be manufactured locally by contract manufacturer Flex with Jio, which aims to sell “millions” of units by March, a source said.
Total PC shipments in India last year stood at 14.8 million units, led by HP, Dell and Lenovo. Accordingly to research firm IDC.
Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak said the launch of JioBook will increase the overall laptop market segment by at least 15 percent.
The laptop will run Jio’s own JioOS operating system and apps can be downloaded from JioStore. Jio is also pitching the laptop as a tablet alternative for corporate employees outside the office.
Jio, which will raise about $22 billion (around Rs 1,80,000 crore) from global investors such as KKR & Co and Silver Lake in 2020, is credited with disrupting the world’s No. 2 mobile market with the launch of cheap 4G data plans and free voice services. In 2016, and later 4G smartphones cost just $81 (roughly Rs. 6,600).
© Thomson Reuters 2022
