POTENTIAL MARKETIndia has 850 million mobile phone users, out of which around 550 million are smartphone users, while the rest 300 million are feature phone users.For the new Jio device, the potential market stands at 300 million with the addressable market expected to be at 140-150 million, according to CyberMedia Research.And out of this, 60-65 million JioPhone (launched few years back) users will be a quick bait for upgradation.“Jio and Google have sought to address not just smartphone affordability, but are also solving for the 3Vs - voice, vernacular and video, for consumers from aspirational India. As many first-time internet users seek to get connected digitally, offerings such as the JioPhone Next are well-timed to bridge India’s digital divide in the post-pandemic future,” Prabhu Ram, Head - Industry Intelligence Group, CMR said.The Jio-Google symbiotic partnership will seek to attain scale and attract millions of users to their ecosystem and services. While Jio can lock users to its 4G services, Google would benefit with the boost in its Android base, Ram said.A report from Counterpoint Research says 60-65 million active 4G Jio Phone (smart feature phone) users are probably the lowest hanging opportunity for Jio to upgrade them to Jio Next and boost ARPU and services usage. Simultaneously, the 2G feature phone users from Airtel and Vodafone Idea will be an important segment to target aggressively with this new ultra-affordable smartphone.Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, TechArc says, “All India smartphone penetration stands at 42.20 %. The potential is huge but it’s more of an economic issue than a technology issue. This means we have to somehow connect this unconnected base with the internet. There are some thresholds which we can’t overcome. Like the whole 58% of people using feature phones can’t be converted to smartphones.”For the next 2-3 years, at least 50-60 million 2G feature phones will be sold every year and for JioPhone Next pricing has to be very aggressive to succeed in a cost sensitive Indian mobile market, Kawoosa said.On June 24, 2021, in its 44th annual general meeting (AGM), Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced the launch of the JioPhone Next 4G smartphone to be available from September 10 this year.The phone will run on an optimized version of Android, with support for latest Android software and security updates. Other features include the Google Assistant, automatic read-aloud of screen text, language translation, smart camera with augmented reality filters and much more.
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