Google deepened its partnership with Reliance Jio with an "ultra-low-cost smartphone" smartphone that could connect hundreds of millions of customers to high-speed mobile data.
"It is ultra-affordable and packs cutting-edge features," Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said. The Jio Phone Next will be available in India starting September 10. "It will be available in the market from the auspicious date of Ganesh Chaturthi, 10th September," announced Ambani.
JioPhone Next comes after JioPhone and JioPhone 2. While the JioPhone 1 and the JioPhone 2 were essentially feature phones with some smart features, the JioPhone Next is a full-featured smartphone, complete with the Google Play store.
“Our teams have optimised a special version of Android specifically for this phone. It is built for India and for users who will experience a smartphone for the first time,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
The phone is running on an optimized version of Android OS designed specifically for the device, Google said.
Jio Phone Next is powered by an optimised version of Android, which has been jointly developed by Reliance Jio and Google.
Calling it a “truly breakthrough” smartphone, Ambani said the JioPhone Next will be among the most affordable smartphones in India and globally. The smartphone will launch in India first.
Reliance and Google also announced cloud and 5G partnerships. The collaboration on 5G "will help more than a billion Indians connect to a faster and better Internet, support businesses in their digital transformation, and help Jio build new services in sectors like health, education and more…,” said Sundar.
“They will be able to take advantage of Google’s AI and machine learning, e-commerce, and demand forecasting offerings. Harnessing the reliability and performance of Google Cloud will enable these businesses to scale up as needed to respond to customer demand,” he added.
Jio is India's leading telecom operator with over 423 million users of voice and data services.
