Idea Cellular, in order to compete with Reliance Jio, is the first telecom industry after Jio to announce that they will launch their own 4G feature phone. The major difference between the JioPhone and the upcoming Idea 4G phone will be the price. Where Jio offers the phone for free by getting Rs. 1,500 payment upfront and then returning the amount after 3years when the phone is returned, Idea Cellular will charge around Rs. 2,500 for the same.
Managing Director, Himanshu Kapania, Idea Cellular talking about the features of the JioPhone said "While clearly, it has an appeal for customers with voice usage, what appeal does it have for customers who have an Internet requirement, we will have to wait to see."
Kapania further said that Idea Cellular is currently working with handset makers to launch a phone that will be slightly more expensive than the Jio Phone but will offer customers the freedom of choice. This new handset will give all the choices to a customer, including to choose the operator of his/ her choice, popular applications like Google, Facebook, or WhatsApp.
Also Read: Top 5 reasons to buy the new JioPhone
Kapania also said that the Reliance Jio Phone comes with a new operating system, has a smaller screen-size and does not offer a touchscreen, as against the prevalent smart phones where 97 percent are on the Android operating system and have an over 4-inch touchscreen. "We are looking at how much features can be brought down, how much bill of material can be brought down (to reduce prices) and test consumer response in each of these," he added.
Himanshu Kapania also said "Both the handset manufacturers and telecom operators need each other to make sure that the offering to the consumer is strong enough when you have to make a choice between a bundled offer and a telecom operator with a locked handset,"
