RIL AGM 2021 Live Updates: Some key features of the JioPhone Next with Google that Reliance Jio will launch on September 10. RIL AGM 2021 Live Updates: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is hosting its 44th annual general meeting (AGM) event, which is being streamed online. The company has announced its JioPhone Next in collaboration with Google. The phone will go on sale from September 10 in India and will run an optimised version of Android, which has been jointly developed by Reliance Jio and Google.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is also on stage talking about the partnership on the 4G phone. This will be one of the most affordable 4G smartphones in the market. The price has not yet been announced. Pichai says the phone will have support for latest Android updates, smart camera and translation as well. It is designed for users who will be going online for the first time.
Jio and Google Cloud are also partnering on 5G as well. As part of this collaboration, Jio will shift its retail business to Google Cloud business as well. Jio Fiber now has 3 million users and it is the largest fixed broadband fiber internet provider in the country. JioFiber is now present in over 100 cities.
Jio will also work to announced 5G-ready devices. Once the 5G solutions is proved at India scale, the company plans to provide it to other telecom operators abroad as well, according to Mukesh Ambani.
Mukesh Ambani said that the company has tested the JIO 5G solutions in India andsuccessfully demonstrated speeds well in excess of 1 GBPS. Jio has also received the necessary regulatory approvals as well as trial spectrum for initiating 5G field-trials. He revealed that the entire 5G Standalone Network has been installed in Jio's data centres across the nation and also at trial sites in Navi Mumbai.
"We are confident of being the first to launch full-fledged 5G services," Ambani said.
The phone will go on sale from September 10, 2021 on the ocassion of Ganesh Chaturthi.
The detailed specifications of the device have not yet been revealed. But this is a smartphone, and not just a 4G-feature phone like the earlier JioPhones. The device runs Android yes, but it is version specifically designed for this particular device. Both Jio and Google have worked to develop this version of the OS.
But Jio has not yet revealed the price of the JioPhone Next. Since it is an affordable phone, it could cost under Rs 8,000, but again this is not confirmed. Other specifications of the device such as display size, battery size, processor, RAM, etc are not yet known.
According to Google, the phone will support the Play Store as well. So they will be able to run all the apps found on the Google Play Store. Google is also promising the latest Android releases and security updates for the phone and adds that the user "experience will keep getting better with new features and customizations, all delivered over-the-air." It is not clear which version of Android the device will run, but we know it is an optimised version of the OS.
Google is promising "a fast and high-quality camera" experience on the JioPhone Next, which can be a problem on most budget phones. Google says they have optimised the camera software and tested with the phone's camera module to ensure clear photos even in low-light and at night. The camera also comes with HDR mode. Google has also partnered with Snap, the parent company for Snapchat, to integrate Indian-specific Snapchat Lenses directly into the phone’s camera. Google says it will continue to update this experience.
According to a blog post, Google says that the JioPhone Next is designed to help users read the content in their own language and they will be able to do so with the tap of a button. The text on the screen will be translated for them in their own language thanks to the Read Aloud and Translate feature, which will be integrated into the OS of the phone. These features will work with any text on the JioPhone Next screen, including web pages, apps, messages, and even photos, according to Google.
It has also added App Actions that enable Google Assistant to deliver a great experience with many of the Jio apps on this device. In addition to asking for the latest cricket scores or a weather update, you can also ask Google Assistant to play music on Jio Saavn or check your balance on My Jio, according to the blog.
Reliance Jio has launched its latest Jio Phone Next smartphone, which has been developed in partnership with Google. It will be available for purchase in the market starting September 10. It is a fully-featured smartphone, supporting the entire suite of applications from Google as well as the Android Play Store, through which users will have access to all the Android apps. It comes with features like voice assistant, automatic read-aloud of screen text language translation, smart camera with augmented reality filters, and much more.
"Our teams have optimized a version of our Android owners, especially for this device will offer language and translation features, a great camera, and support for the latest Android updates. It's built for India, and it'll open up new possibilities for millions of new users, who will experience the internet for the very first time, and we can't wait to show you the device, later this year," Ambani said.
"Jio became the first operator outside China to cross 400 million subscribers in a single country. Jio is today, the world's second-largest mobile data carrier handling monthly traffic of over 630 Crore gigabytes, a month. This is nearly a 45% growth in data consumption," Mukesh Ambani said.
We have embedded the live stream link of the RIL AGM 2021 event, so you can watch it here too.
The telecom operator could launch an affordable laptop, which will reportedly be called JioBook. Reliance is also expected to announce the expansion of its JioMart service, which is currently available in around 200 cities. The company's Chairman Mukesh Ambani is also expected to reveal Jio's plans to roll out 5G network. Back in December 2020, he revealed that Jio 5G services would available in India in the second half of 2021.
Reliance is also expected to announce JioPhone 3. Last year, the company didn't launch an upgraded version of the JioPhone 2. So, we might get to see the new feature phone at today's 2021 RIL AGM event.
The company in its annual report for the financial year (March 31, 2021), revealed that the JioPhone since its unveiling in 2017, “upgraded over 100 million users.” The report, which was recently released, also asserted that the mobile data penetration has increased to 35 per cent in rural areas.
Besides, two years back, Jio had 306.7 million subscribers and it now has 426.2 million subscribers.
"JioPhone continues to be the world’s most affordable 4G phone...we have sold 100 million JioPhone handsets till date, there are many feature phone users who are waiting to upgrade to a conventional smartphone, if only it was somehow more affordable," the company's chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the 2020 AGM event.
"We believe we can design an entry-level 4G or even a 5G smartphone for a fraction of its current cost. But to power such a value-engineered smartphone, we also need an equally value-engineered smartphone operating system. Google and Jio are partnering to build an Android-based smartphone operating system," he added.
Reliance is widely rumoured to unveil its Jio 5G phone today at RIL AGM 2021 event. The smartphone has been in the works for some time now and was previously expected to make its debut in December 2020.
Google reportedly invested Rs 33,737-crore in this Indian telecom firm and acquired a 7.7 per cent stake in July last year. The partnership included a plan to develop an Android-based operating system for cheaper 4G or 5G phones. The rumour mill suggests that the operating system could be called JioOS.
While the specifications of the upcoming Jio 5G phone are yet to be revealed, a Bloomberg report claimed that the price of this affordable 5G phone could be around Rs 4,000. However, a few reports suggest that the device will not cost less than Rs 5,000. The 5G Jio phone is expected to feature entry-level hardware and offer a streamlined Android experience.