Jio Phone Looks Awesome, but Is There a Catch?

While the Jio Phone generated a lot of excitement after the Reliance Jio AGM, not everything may be as rosy as it seems. There still are a lot of unanswered questions around the Jio Phone, which we try to answer on this episode of Orbital podcast. Phone enthusiasts Roydon Cerejo and Aditya Shenoy join host Pranay Parab to talk about this.

We start by talking about why people should not blindly believe everything promised at the Reliance Jio event. A little bit of healthy scepticism is good for all launches. We mention the company manufacturing the Jio Phone and talk about its track record. We speak about Reliance Jio's make in India aspirations and whether the company can deliver the promised 5 million units every week. 

We then look at the kind of battery life one can expect from the Jio Phone. With a colour screen and 4G LTE connectivity, we wonder how long the battery of the feature phone will last. We also raise questions around Jio Phone's refundable security deposit and under what conditions will one be given the refund. 

From there, we move to software. As of now not much is known about the OS running on Jio Phone. We talk about the software and the apps once can expect on the phone. We look at the pre-loaded apps on the phone and talk about the biggest feature that the Jio Phone lacks. We talk about the availability of Jio Phone in India and how one can book Jio Phone and buy it. We mention several problems this process could have and talk about how Jio Phone can reach the market it is targeted at.

Finally, we talk about the phones that Jio Phone will compete with. We talk about the effect of Jio Phone on the competition and whether this could spur a low-cost 4G LTE phone boom in the market. 

That's all for this week's episode of Orbital, which you can subscribe to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below.