Jio Phone, the most affordable yet feature rich phone, is disappearing from the market as we speak. More and more customers are becoming upset for not getting a Jio Phone from the Reliance Digital outlets. 

The shops, too, have reported unavailability of the Jio phone and their stocks are now dwindling without any chance of refill. 

New Jio Phone On The Cards?

When asked about the reason for the vanishing act done by Jio phone, the authorities are tight lipped as of now.

However, the industry insiders are hinting at an introduction of new version of Jio Phone.

Some say that the new phone will be called as Jio Phone Lite. However, we won’t speculate much about the name yet. What we are interested in is the price of the new phone. The new phone is purported to be around 399.

Third Time Decrease In Price

When the Jio Phone was first launched, it was priced at 1500 along with a recharge of 153. While the amount was refundable, the customers had to shell out Rs.1653 upfront.

In July 2018, Jio came out with Monsoon Hungama offer. Under this offer, a customer could exchange her old 2G/3G handset for a brand new Jio Phone. She had to pay 501 for the phone and 594 for the bundled recharge.

In 2019, on the auspicious eve of Diwali, Jio once again decreased the price of the Jio Phone. People could buy a Jio Phone only at Rs. 800 – Rs. 699 for the phone and Rs. 100 for the bundled recharge. The difference was, customers would get only a month worth of recharge with the new phone as opposed to 6 months worth of recharge under Monsoon Hungama.

Jio Phone Price Set To Come Down Again In 2020

As of March 2020, all the old Jio phones are nowhere to be seen in the market. The Reliance Digital Stores are empty, the shops are empty. We talked to a Reliance Digital Store in Kolkata and they are not sure when the Jio Phone will be back.

The shopkeepers are now being provided with the leftover Jio Phone 2018 models. After these old models are sold out, the shops will stare at blankness too. Even Amazon has only two sellers selling Jio Phone as of March and these sellers have only one stock each.

However, there is a good news.

According to sources working inside the industry, Jio is planning to bring out a new version of the Jio Phone which will be priced at Rs.399.

As of now there is very little news about the new Jio Phone. Will it come with some kind of bundled plan?

Will it be named Jio Phone Lite? WIll the specifications remain the same? Will there be no ‘smart’ features in the phone? All these questions need to be answered. It is better not to speculate.

New Jio Phone Launch At A Crucial Time

Jio has always targeted the people living in the lower economic strata with the jio phone. As a result, when the smartphone owners are paying Rs 199 to 555 to as high as 2121, the jio phone owners pay Rs 75, 125, 155 or 185. With the Jio Phone, Mukesh Ambani has cleverly prevented these people from turning towards Vodafone or Airtel.

WIth the increasing pressure from TRAI and COAI, Jio is all set to increase the tariff. This might make some of the people look at Vodafone or Airtel with a favourable perspective. The dirt-cheap price of Jio phone and its comparatively lower recharge plans will ensure that even if a customer finds the smartphone plans too expensive to afford, he can use the Jio Phone and enjoy almost the same benefit – at least as far as voice calling is concerned.

Let us hope that Jio comes out with the new phone soon or atleast make the old phone available for the time being. 

About The Author

Marifur Rahaman is a budding technical writer.  He is a technology enthusiast and strives to learn more about emerging technologies. He runs a smartphone store in Kolkata.

Views expressed by Marifur are his own, based on his own personal experience and research. 

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