JIO AND GOOGLE ANNOUNCE "JIOPHONE NEXT"

 

Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of much awaited "JioPhone Next", another affordable smartphone developed jointly by Reliance Jio and Google. The announcement came during the Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 24th June 2021, the Thursday. The phone is proposed to be available in the Indian market starting September 10, 2021.

Ambani presented the images of JioPhone Next and said that it will be a full-feature smartphone, the most affordable in the market, but did not disclose the planned price range. Some of the phone’s features include voice assistant, automatic read-aloud of screen text, language translation and smart camera with augmented reality filters.

Mukesh Ambani at the AGM said, "India still has nearly 300 million mobile users who are unable to escape from inefficient and exorbitant 2G services, because even a basic 4G smartphone remains unaffordable for these users. Last year, Sundar and I had talked about Google and Jio co-developing a next-generation, feature-rich, but extremely affordable smartphone."  

"JioPhone Next is powered by an extremely optimized version of the Android operating system that has been jointly developed by Jio and Google, specially for the Indian market," said Mukesh Ambani at the virtual AGM. He further added, "This is a testimony to a global technology giant, and a national technology champion, working together to make truly a breakthrough product that can be first introduced in India, and then taken to the rest of the world."

 Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet spoke about the joint partnership of Reliance Jio and Google and said: "JioPhone Next is powered by an optimized version of Android OS jointly developed by Jio and Google. It is ultra-affordable and packs cutting-edge features."

Pichai added that Google's vision with the Jio partnership was to bring affordable access to information for Indians. "Next steps in this vision start with a new, affordable, Jio smartphone, created with Google. It is built for India and it will open up new possibilities for millions of new users who will experience the internet for first time." Mr. Pichai also spoke about the partnership of both companies on 5G network technology. He said "A new 5G partnership between Google Cloud and Jio will help more than a billion Indians connect to a faster internet, support businesses in digital transformation and lay foundation for next phase of India’s digitization".

During the AGM, Ambani also talked about his company's fixed broadband operator JioFiber. "With a cumulative base of 3 million active home and business users, JioFiber has become the largest and the fastest-growing fixed broadband operator in India," Ambani said.

 "We are proud to play a part in India’s next wave of technological innovation. Helping to connect 1.3 billion Indians to the opportunities the internet creates is meaningful to us at Google – and certainly to me personally," Pichai added.