Google And Jio Unveil Budget Phone "Built For India"

Google Cloud technologies will form the basis for Jio's upcoming 5G wireless solutions as well as serving the internal needs of online services, Mukesh Ambani said.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd. unveiled the much-awaited JioPhone Next co-developed with Alphabet Inc.'s Google, a handset designed to target India's hundreds of millions of first-time smartphone users. "An ultra-affordable 4G smartphone is essential," Mr Ambani told shareholders at Reliance's annual general meeting on Thursday, outlining the capabilities of the device that will run a re-engineered version of the Android operating system. Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai joined remotely to say that the JioPhone was "built for India" and would deliver translation features, a voice assistant and a great camera. Neither company leader disclosed a price for the handset, which will debut in the market on September 10, ahead of the country's peak shopping and gifting season. Both indicated plans to achieve a breakthrough price. Jio is India's leading telecom operator with over 423 million users of voice and data services. The new 4G-capable device will try to entice users of basic phones, those "trapped in the 2G era," in Mr Ambani's words, to make the transition to more advanced hardware. For Google, it marks another effort toward making Android friendlier to more frugal devices and thus accessible to a wider audience of potential users of its services.