Reliance Jio shipped close to 2 million units of Jio Phone Next in Q4 21, report

Reliance Jio shipped close to 2 million units of its entry-level smartphone, the Jio Phone Next, in Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2021, said Canalys, a market research firm. 

The demand for Jio’s new smartphone has come from a growing number of users who are migrating from feature phones to smartphones. Though this has been going on for a while, as per Canalys, the pace of migration has grown after the pandemic.    

“After the Covid-19 wave, more people realised the importance of smartphones and are now constantly moving from feature phones to smartphones, which can connect them to different services beyond calling and text messaging,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, research analyst at Canalys.  

Chaurasia also pointed out that the 2 million unit shipments of Jio Phone Next was below the figure Reliance Jio was targeting.  

“They had planned for almost like four to five million units during the big festival season, but due to shortage of components they had to cut a lot of their shipments, he added.  

Having said that the market share of the sub Rs 10,000 segment declined by 5% year-on-year (YoY) to 30% in Q4 2021, as per Counterpoint, as many of the buyers of entry-level smartphones are now upgrading to smartphones that cost above Rs 10,000. For instance, the sub Rs 20,000 segment grew by 8%, while the above Rs 20,000 segment grew at an even higher 95% YoY.  

Jio Phone Next was launched in India on November 4, 2021, at Rs 6,499 and an alternative price of Rs 1,999 with a 24 month EMI plan. 

Aimed at feature phone users and first-time smartphone buyers, the Jio Phone Next was developed in collaboration with Google. It was based on a custom version of Android called Pragati OS that offered several language centric features such as support for 10 Indian languages and Read Aloud, which were aimed at native language speaking users in smaller towns and rural areas. The smartphone was earlier expected to be launched in September.