Updated: July 15, 2020 6:57:45 pm
Jio, Google announce new operating system; plans to launch affordable smartphone (Image: Jio)
At the Annual General Meet (AGM) 2020 today Reliance announced it is developing an Android-based operating system in partnership with Google. Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio Platforms and Google have entered into a commercial agreement to develop entry-level affordable smartphones with optimizations to the Android operating system and Play Store.
At the digital AGM Ambani said, “Google and Reliance Jio are partnering to build a value-engineered Android-based smartphone operating system. Through this partnership, we can accelerate the national mission of putting a smart device in the hands of every Indian.”
With this initiative, Ambani wants India to be “2G mukt” soon and offer affordable “4G or even 5G” smartphones running on Android-based operating system.
READ | Reliance Jio to launch ‘Made in India’ 5G network: Mukesh Ambani
Ambani said “even though we have sold over 100 million JioPhones… there are many feature phone users who are waiting to upgrade to a conventional smartphone, if only it were somehow more affordable. So we have decided to address this challenge.”
The company previously launched JioPhone and JioPhone 2 running on KiaOS in the country to provide smartphone access to feature phone users. Under the new partnership with Google, we can expect Jio to launch a more powerful and smarter JioPhone with Google’s operating system.
Everyone should have access to the internet. Proud to partner with @reliancejio to increase access for the hundreds of millions in India who don’t own a smartphone with our 1st investment of $4.5B from the #GoogleForIndia Digitization Fund.https://t.co/1fP8iBZQfm
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) July 15, 2020
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai also addressed the RIL AGM via video conference and that the collaboration will enable more users in India to adopt affordable 4G smartphones. With the help of the upcoming Android-based operating system users will be able to access the Google Play store. This means that these affordable smartphones will allow users to download Google family apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, Hangouts, among others.
READ | Jio-Google deal: Google to invest Rs 33,737 crore in Jio platforms
READ | Reliance AGM 2020 LIVE Updates: With Google, Jio wants to make India ‘2G-mukt’
“Together we are excited to rethink, from the ground up, how millions of users in India can become owners of smartphones. This effort will unlock new opportunities, further power the vibrant ecosystem of applications and push innovation to drive growth for the new Indian economy,” Jio noted in a press release.
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