At a time when Reliance Jio's 4G offerings, along with the Jio 4G SIM, are taking smartphone users by storm, the company is rumoured to be looking at launching ultra low-cost feature phones offering 4G LTE capabilities for video calling. Though feature phones are today looked down upon as outdated devices, they are still alive at many places.
The rumoured Reliance Jio 4G feature phones are said to be priced at an affordable Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 price range, Economic Times reported. The USP of these devices is said to be the 4G-LTE capability. Jio is targeting people in rural or tier-2 areas across India and the ultra low-cost offerings could be tailor-made for this category of users.
Currently, even the most affordable smartphones in India, offering 4G LTE capabilities, are priced above Rs 2,500. Also, not too long ago, the market was abuzz with Freedom 251, which was claimed to be the most affordable smartphone in the world. However, now the hype around Freedom 251 seems to have died down significantly.
Nonetheless, Reliance Jio's rumoured Rs 1,000 feature phones (with 4G LTE) could capture eyeballs considering the fact that the newest Indian telco has announced tariff plans for almost every budget. Even these are seen, by users, as value-for-money offerings. Jio's 4G tariff plans offer free voice calls along with choices to choose the most suitable 4G data tariff. These have even triggered a price war among telcos.
In related news, Reliance Jio seems to have made inroads as far as reducing call drop rates is concerned. As per newer updates, Reliance Jio call drop rates have reduced to 28 percent as compared to 60 percent last month.
