Reliance Jio to unveil low-cost laptop

RELIANCE Jio will soon launch a laptop priced at just Rs. 15,000 rupees ($184) - one of the cheapest on offer in India, aiming to replicate the success of its low-cost phone, Reuters reported citing two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance is known for disrupting businesses with cut-throat price offerings. Jio, its telecoms unit, has been credited with upending the world's no. 2 mobile market with cheap 4G data plans and free voice services in 2016. Last year, it followed that up with its 4G JioPhone that costs $81.

The laptop, to be called JioBook and which will be embedded with a 4G sim card, will be available to customers such as schools and government institutes from this month while a consumer launch is anticipated within the next three months, the sources said. As with the JioPhone, a 5G-enabled version is set to follow.

‘This will be as big as JioPhone,' one of the sources said.

The sources declined to be identified as the launch plans have not been made public. Jio, India's biggest telecom carrier, did not respond to a request for comment.

The JioPhone has been India's top-selling smartphone priced under $100, accounting for a fifth of that market segment over the last three quarters, according to Counterpoint Research. The segment accounts for 9 per cent of the country's smartphone sales.

JioBook will run on the JioOS operating system, the sources said, adding that some of Microsoft's apps will also be available. It will use Qualcomm chips based on technology from Arm Ltd, they added.

The laptop will compete with a limited number of offerings in that price range from Acer, Lenovo and Indian firm Lava.

But it could face some resistance in a country where laptops running Microsoft Windows dominate.

‘Challenges for the adoption will be user awareness...Also non-Windows (operating system) is a letdown too,' Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak said.

The JioBook will be produced locally by contract manufacturer Flex with Jio aiming to sell ‘hundreds of thousands' of units by March, one of the sources said.