Rumours are rife about Reliance Jio's entry into the smartphone sector after disrupting the telecom industry in a big way. The new telco is after setting a benchmark for smartphone manufacturers to build ultra-cheap 4G VoLTE phones in India, which will complement Jio's affordable data and voice calling tariffs.
It is widely speculated that Jio will be launching VoLTE phones priced between Rs. 999 and Rs. 1,500, which will clearly change the landscape of the mobile industry. Now, a leaked image showing the purported Jio handset added cred to earlier rumours.
An anonymous source sent an image of the Jio handset to Gadgets360. The front panel design is clearly visible. By the looks of it, the Jio 4G phone doesn't look pricey at all. In fact, it has a classy feature phone design taking after brands like Nokia, Samsung, LG and others.
The leaked photo shows the handset with four physical buttons- shortcuts to MyJio, JioTV, JioCinema and JioMusic apps. This is probably going to continue in all Jio phones in the future. The alphanumberic keyboard is standard and the handset also has navigation button above it alongside menu, back, call and power buttons around it.
Detailed technical specifications of the Jio phones are not revealed, but they are said to come with Spreadtrum chipsets and front and rear cameras. The VoLTE feature is going to be the USP of the Jio phones against the backdrop of Jio making voice calls free over its LTE network. Now, mobile users are looking for phones with this feature to enjoy free unlimited calls to any network.
If Jio launches its ultra-affordable VoLTE-ready phones, combined with its Happy New Year offer, the company will be unstoppable in both telecom and mobile phone industry. According to its latest Q3 financial and operational performance report, Reliance Retail sold 2.8 million LYF devices and added over 72.4 million subscribers in less than four months as of December 31, 2016.
