Jio, Google put off smartphone launch till November

A crippling global shortage of semiconductor chips has forced Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Google to defer the launch of an affordable smartphone by two months.

JioPhone Next, the 4G smartphone that was to go on sale on Friday, will now start selling only before Diwali, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said in a statement late on Thursday. This year, Diwali is on November 4.

The phone has been developed jointly by RIL’s telecom unit and Google.

“Jio and Google have begun testing JioPhone Next with a limited set of users for further refinement and are working to make it available more widely in time for Diwali,” RIL said. “This additional time will help mitigate the current industry-wide, global semiconductor shortages,” the company said.