Jio Partners With Google to Develop Android-based Operating System for Affordable 4G, 5G Smartphones
Reliance Jio hopes to provide affordable "4G or even 5G" smartphones running Android-based operating system.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Wednesday announced that its telecommunications arm, Jio is partnering with Google to develop an Android-based operating system that will feature in entry-level smartphones. The development was shared by Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani at the 43rd Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting (AGM) that took place online owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Ambani during the AGM stated that the company is aiming to make India "2G-mukt." To achieve this, the company hopes to provide affordable "4G or even 5G" smartphones running Android-based operating system.
Google and Reliance Jio are partnering to build a value-engineered Android-based smartphone operating system. Through this partnership, we can accelerate the national mission of putting a smart device in the hands of every Indian," Ambani said.Ambani further added that Jio was committed to providing affordable smartphones to 35 crore users in India. The company, over the years, have launched Jio phone models such as Jio Phone and Jio Phone 2 that run on KaiOS.
"Even though we have sold over 100 million [10 crores] Jio phones... there are many feature phone users who are waiting to upgrade to a conventional smartphone, if only it were somehow more affordable. So we have decided to address this challenge," Ambani stated.
"Through this partnership, we are confident that we can accelerate the national mission of putting a smart device in the hands of every Indian."@Google #RILAGM #NayeIndiaKaNayaJosh #Jio #JioPlatforms #Google https://t.co/ci2TBtaXWT
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) July 15, 2020
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also addressed the RIL AGM through a video, indicated that the partnership between Reliance Jio and Google would enable more users in India to adopt affordable 4G smartphones. Google recently announced that the company would invest $10 billion (roughly Rs. 75,000 crores) in India to accelerate the country's digital economy.
With the Android-based operating system on future Jio phone models, users would be able to access the Google Play store. It will further allow phone users to use Google apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, Hangouts, and many more.
Reliance at the AGM event also announced its plans to bring 5G connectivity to India. Additionally, Ambani revealed that Google would invest Rs. 33,737 crores for a 7.7 percent stake in Jio Platforms.
Reliance Jio today announced Google as its latest investor and partner at the RIL AGM earlier today. Google will not only invest in Reliance’s digital arm ‘Jio Platforms’ but work with the company on a new phone as well.
Google is the latest company to invest in Jio Platforms joining the likes of other popular tech names like Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also made a virtual appearance at the event talking about the company’s partnership with Jio. We take a look at the Google-Jio partnership and highlight its key points.
Jio Platforms investment
Everyone’s well aware of the recent spree of investments in Jio Platforms. Jio announced today that Google will invest ₹33,737 crore for a 7.73% equity stake in Jio Platforms. This also brings the total investment in Jio Platforms to ₹1,52,056 crore.
Google for India fund
Google’s investment in Jio Platforms is actually a part of the Google for India fund announced this Monday. Google said it will invest ₹75,000 crore as part of its Google for India Digitization Fund. The Jio Platforms investment is the first part of this investment by Google.
Everyone should have access to the internet. Proud to partner with @reliancejio to increase access for the hundreds of millions in India who don’t own a smartphone with our 1st investment of $4.5B from the #GoogleForIndia Digitization Fund.https://t.co/1fP8iBZQfm
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) July 15, 2020
New affordable smartphone
Delving further into this investment is Google and Jio working together on an entry-level smartphone with Android optimisations and the Play Store as well. Jio already dominates the feature phone market with its Jio Phone and Jio Phone 2 smart feature phones.
Customised Android OS
This low-cost smartphone will run on a customised Android OS that both companies will work on together. There will be optimisations in the Google Play Store as well for this smartphone. Google currently offers Android Go which is a lighter version of the OS for entry-level phones. It also has lightweight Android Go apps. The new Android-based OS is expected to have more optimised features for Indian users.
Not the first partnership
This is the first official Google-Jio partnership but the two companies have been linked together before. JioPhone runs on the Google-backed KaiOS which helped bring apps like YouTube, Google Maps and even WhatsApp and Facebook. These apps on a non-smartphone along with 4G support helped propel the JioPhone adoption in India.
