Jio’s 4G feature phone drives up segment sales

India’s feature phone market grew 15% sequentially to 20 million units in the October-December quarter, led by Reliance’s JioBharat 4G basic phone, brokerage CLSA said.

Within the feature phone segment, shipments of 4G-enabled handsets rose 63% from the previous three-month period to 8.2 million, with JioBharat fuelling the growth, CLSA said in a report. But they were 61% lower compared with the peak 4G feature phone shipment of 21 million units. Reliance’s JioBharat, launched in July last year at ₹999, boosted the feature phone segment volumes, especially in the latter half of 2023, according to analysts and market trackers.