JioPhone Next may not drive feature phone to smartphone migration, hints Airtel MD Gopal Vittal

The JioPhone Next is priced at Rs 6499, but users have the option to buy the device for Rs 1,999 and to pay the rest over the next 18 or 24 months in easy EMIs.

Airtel managing director Gopal Vittal on Wednesday hinted that he was not sure if a newly-launched 4G smartphone JioPhone Next would attract feature phone users in mass numbers due to its pricing. Vittal did not name the JioPhone Next directly. Jio’s Google-backed smartphone went on sale on Friday. The JioPhone Next is priced at Rs 6499, but users have the option to buy the device for Rs 1,999 and to pay the rest over the next 18 or 24 months in easy EMIs.

“I’m not too sure if the new 4G device (read: JioPhone Next) will drive feature phone users to upgrade in a major way as smartphone prices, including those of 4G devices priced up to Rs 12,000 have risen sharply due to high input costschipset costs, memory and screen prices have all gone up,” Vittal said at Bharti Airtel’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call Wednesday.