Idea Cellular, India’s third largest telecom operator, is reported to launch a new smartphone in order to counter Reliance JioPhone pretty soon. The company is expected to launch its phone at a price point of Rs 2,500.
"The practical solution that we are working on is to work with the handset industry and work with them to be able to bring down cost of handsets by bringing down the bill of material, so that the gap of the announced price of Jio feature phone versus a smartphone can be brought down to reasonable levels," Himanshu Kapania, the Managing Director of Idea Cellular, was quoted as saying by PTI.
He further added that the exact pricing of the upcoming smartphone is yet to be decided, but it might be priced around Rs 2,500.
With the launch Reliance JioPhone, concerns about net neutrality are once again at centre stage. Kapania said, the JioPhone will not allow most of the apps available in the market and it will force the customers to use individual operator’s apps. He further added that the upcoming handset from Idea will not only give an option to choose the operator of his/her choice but will also allow downloading applications like Google, Facebook or WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, Airtel is also reported to partner with other handset manufacturers to provide affordable 4G-enabled feature phone. However, unlike JioPhone, Airtel will not ‘subsidise’ the cost of the handset, instead, it will bundle it different plans. “We have no intention to get into subsidizing devices and running the inventory as if we own them. There is a difference between subsidizing and bundling. We have done that on the smartphone side for many years. We will continue to look at bundling,” Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Airtel said in a statement. Read more...
"The practical solution that we are working on is to work with the handset industry and work with them to be able to bring down cost of handsets by bringing down the bill of material, so that the gap of the announced price of Jio feature phone versus a smartphone can be brought down to reasonable levels," Himanshu Kapania, the Managing Director of Idea Cellular, was quoted as saying by PTI.
He further added that the exact pricing of the upcoming smartphone is yet to be decided, but it might be priced around Rs 2,500.
With the launch Reliance JioPhone, concerns about net neutrality are once again at centre stage. Kapania said, the JioPhone will not allow most of the apps available in the market and it will force the customers to use individual operator’s apps. He further added that the upcoming handset from Idea will not only give an option to choose the operator of his/her choice but will also allow downloading applications like Google, Facebook or WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, Airtel is also reported to partner with other handset manufacturers to provide affordable 4G-enabled feature phone. However, unlike JioPhone, Airtel will not ‘subsidise’ the cost of the handset, instead, it will bundle it different plans. “We have no intention to get into subsidizing devices and running the inventory as if we own them. There is a difference between subsidizing and bundling. We have done that on the smartphone side for many years. We will continue to look at bundling,” Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Airtel said in a statement. Read more...