After disrupting India’s telecom sector with its game-changing tariff plans, Reliance Jio Infocomm may now do the same in the smartphone market with its low-cost 4G voice over LTE or VoLTE feature phone allowing free calls.
According to an Economic Times report, the handsets expected to be launched during this quarter will be priced at Rs 999 and Rs 1,500. The company expects the fresh offerings to attract a large number of customers.
The VoLTE feature phones are likely to have front and rear cameras, may come with apps such as Jio Chat, Live TV and video-on-demand and may also feature company’s digital wallet service – Jio Money Wallet.
However, analysts believe that VoLTE feature phones will affect India’s smartphone market and that its growth rate this year may have to be revised downwards.
“If VoLTE feature phones come into the market, then there won't be a driving force pushing for the upgrade to smartphones; rather it will be an upgrade from feature phones to VoLTE feature phones,” Faizal Kawoosa, principal analyst at Cybermedia Research, was quoted by Economic Times as saying.
They further said that the first quarter of 2017 is likely to see a 40 per cent year-on-year decline in any case due to the lingering impact of demonetisation.
