JioPhone Has Google Maps Now – Reliance Jio Wants To Defeat Android In India?
Android is losing ground rapidly, and iOS has already accepted defeat against JioPhone!
After disrupting telecom industry and hardware, Reliance Jio wants to disrupt the operating system market in India.
In their latest salvo, Jio has announced that JioPhone will now have Google Maps as well, and this is a warning bell for Android.
KaiOS, which powers Jio Phone has already defeated iOS in India, and rapidly snatching away market share from Android.
Can one day KaiOS become the #1 Operating System in India.
If we believe the winning habits of Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, then yes, it is a possibility in not so distant future.
Google Maps Now on JioPhone!
As per newest update received on JioPhone, users can now access Google Maps, using the GPS facility.
This is indeed a technological breakthrough, as JioPhone are low-priced feature phone, albeit with 4G technology.
Users of JioPhone will need to download the latest version 2018.628.2. Into their phones to get Google Maps.
Some of the biggest and most popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube are already available on JioPhone, and this makes it as attractive as any smartphone.
And this leads to our theory of disruption: Does Jio wants to conquer the OS market in India?
Jio’s Disruption Extends to OS Market!
In the month of May, we had announced that KaiOS, which powers JioPhone has captured 15% market share in India, thereby beating iOS by a fair margin (9.5%)
This was a big news, but at that time, there was no Facebook and no Whatsapp in JioPhones. But now, not only JioPhone has Facebook and Whatsapp, it also has Google Maps.
With 70% share, Android is no doubt the #1 OS in India right now, but with a stronger and more flexible KaiOS, the dynamics of the market is changing very rapidly.
The report by DevilAtlas had said, “Both iOS and Android lost market share in India. In a country of over 1.3 billion people, a few percentage points can make a huge difference to a manufacturers bottom line,”
During Q1 of 2018, KaiOS enabled JioPhone posted record number of shipments: 23 million JioPhones were shipped, which is an increase of 1400%.
Such staggering increase in volume very strongly suggests that Android is facing the heat.
But, here is a twist in the story: Google, which owns Android, has already invested in KaiOS, thereby proving that they are threatened with them.
In the coming days, a very interesting evolution will take place in the mobile OS market, and right now, JioPhone’s KaiOS is standing right at the forefront of it.
