Jio Resumes Delivery Of Jio Phone; Aims To Deliver 1 Crore Handsets!

In July this year, Reliance Jio had attempted a hardware disruption, by announcing the Jio Phone, a 4G VoLTE feature phones for an effective price of Rs 0.

This triggered a mad rush among Jio’s competitors to launch similar subsidized, low cost 4G enabled handsets, and a disruption was witnessed, albeit for a short time.

Troubled with logistics issues, Jio had to suspend the booking window merely two days after the bookings opened in August.

Besides, there were some safety issues as well, which probably prompted Jio to stop delivering Jio Phones.

However, now, Jio Phone is back with a bang, and even more ambitious plans: Around 10 million or 1 Crore Jio Phones would be delivered in the coming days.

Are we witnessing Hardware Disruption 2.0 here?

Jio Phone Is Back With A Bang!

The advance bookings for Jio Phone opened on August 24th, but due to overwhelming response, and lack of supply, the window was closed on August 26th.

Although we don’t have the exact numbers as to how many people booked their low cost Jio Phones, around 6 million handsets were delivered in the next few weeks.

Now, Jio has started delivering handsets to those 10 million who had pre-booked Jio Phone between August 24th and August 26th, but couldn’t get their hands on the mobile due to lack of supply.

Starting Sunday, some of these users have started receiving SMS alert from Jio, asking them to click on a link which provides them with a code and directs them to the nearest Jio Store for purchasing the low cost 4G feature phone.

The user can only buy the handset by showing that confirmation code to the retail outlet of Jio.

The plan is simple: Jio will first deliver handsets to these users who had earlier pre-booked in August, and then aim for the pan-India expansion.

An unnamed official said,

“Of the many who are interested, about 6-7 million will ultimately buy the phone,”

Officially, Jio hasn’t yet responded to this development.

Will Jio Disrupt The Low Cost 4G Phone Market?

As per various analysts, around 500 million Indians still don’t have access to smartphones, and the fact is that, still, close to 50% of all phones sold in India are feature phones!

This means that around 130-160 million feature phones are sold every year, and it this this market that Jio and other telecom players wants to capture now.

Unless people have hardware to access 4G, how can digital wave spread? As we had shared earlier as well, after reducing the price of Internet and making voice calls free, the biggest challenge which Jio and other telecom players will face is hardware limitation: You can make the data cheap, but the user still needs a phone to access it.

In order to remove this blockade, Jio had announced their much anticipated Jio Phone, which can be bought by paying a ‘security deposit’ of Rs 1500, which would be refunded in 36 months, thereby making it effectively free.

With plans as low as Rs 153/month, the deal is no doubt a cracker.

Once Jio launched their Jio Phone, which has been described as an Indian phone with a Chinese heart, other telecom players also jumped into the bandwagon, and offers similar deals.

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and even BSNL has launched their bundled low cost 4G phones, and the market is now anticipating some more fireworks, as Jio has resumed their Jio Phone deliveries.

Will you buy a Jio 4G feature phone?

Do let us know by commenting right here!

Jio Phone Related Opinions We Had Covered:

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Jio Phone: The Fine Print You “MUST” Know!

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