Personal Finance

Jio Phone Overbooked, Booking Halts, Delivery to Start by Navratri

By Jyoti Bhatia

Posted on September 2, 2017

Jio shook the snail-paced telecom industry from rock bottom. Once known as giant telecom players, were taken aback with the launch of unlimited free voice calls, data pack at revised rates accompanied by other top-notch Jio services and now Jio Phone.

The shares of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications slashed down. But these worst times gave consumer a moment to cheer. With the dropping of data prices by 95%, the average customer base started to grow at an alarming rate. To survive against all the odds, the network carriers started to put allegation on Reliance Jio for its unfair practices (net neutrality, call failure), but it seems despite all the allegations the company has turned the tables upside down by launching Reliance 4G phone, which has already crossed 6 million bookings.

Jio Phone Target

Jio wants to capture the target market of 500 million Indians, who still use basic or feature phones primarily used for call services and haven’t moved for a smartphone because of its affordability or inability to use the same.

When is the company planning to deliver the phone?

The concept of “effectively free” phone is being planned to start during the auspicious Navratri festival that starts from September 21.The bookings of Jio phone have already started on August 24 with a refundable deposit of Rs 500. However, the bookings were put on hold for three days because it exceeded the expectations of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani (he expected to deliver 500 million units per week).

“The pre-booking of JioPhone was put on hold after 6 million units were booked within first three days. We have been told by the company that the deliveries of JioPhone will start during Navratri,” the channel partner, who asked not to be named, told PTI (Source).

Reliance Jio plans to sell 100 million units of Jio Phone in the first year and 100 million units in the coming year. With this smart move, the company wishes to expand its existing customer base. On July 21, Ambani categorically announced that its user base has exceeded over 125 million. According to the recent report, more than half of the phones shipped in the second quarter of the year was LTE enable and is expected to cross 90 percent level.

What to expect in terms of specifications?

Jio Phone will come packed with features like 2.4 inch display screen, 1.2GHz dual core processor, 4GB internal storage memory with microSD card that supports upto 128 GB, wi-fi support, NFC for digital payments, 2000Mah battery and KAI OS, operating system. The unique feature of Jio phone is it supports 22 vernacular languages, there is a voice assistant to take control of certain functions. The phones that come under Jio flagship brand will also host a lot of other apps like JioCinema, JioMusic, JioTV, Jionews, along with other social networking apps like Facebook and You Tube.

Now, isn’t a game changer deal?