JioPhone’s tepid returns drive shift in strategy

Reliance Jio’s move to jointly develop a low-cost smartphone with Google heralds a marked shift in strategy three years after the ambitious launch of JioPhone, the feature phone offering a gamut of services.

The response from budget users was less than enthusiastic for the JioPhone, which fell short of expectations in a rapidly expanding telecom market flooded with smartphones from China, analysts said.

JioPhone had helped drive up the subscriber base, but failed to help the operator find premium data subscribers to the extent that it was now looking to woo them with Google’s help, experts suggested.