The smartphone manufacturers have shifted their focus to the devices that support 4G connectivity in India. The Reliance Jio Infocomm’s high speed broadband services are expected to be launched by the end of this year and Airtel is also expected to expand its services.
The international market dominators including Apple and Samsung have already launched high end 4G enabled devices in the market. On the other hand, the Chinese vendors such as Huawei, Coolpad, Lenovo, Meizu, Xiaomi and ZTE are focusing on launching reasonably priced 4G devices with impressive specifications.
The Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava are revising their strategy by launching 4G smartphones at different price ranges. However, the emphasis is on the affordable segment priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000.
Regarding this, the Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani stated that in China, the 4G LTE devices witnessed an increase from 10 percent to 84 percent in terms of overall device shipment. A similar trend is expected to happen in India. He further added that the country will get many 4G LTE smartphones within Rs 4,000 by December this year.
The top priority of the service provider is to work with all the leading global device makers to ensure the availability of the 4G LTE handsets in all the price ranges from ultra premium to entry level.
The Chinese manufacturer ZTE that launched the ZTE Blade Qlux 4G for Rs 4,999 has stirred the market in terms of competition. There are many other offerings in the entry level price bracket and all have received significant success and are selling well via the online marketplaces. The offline retailers expect the prices of these devices to reduce as the materials are likely to get cheaper.
The industry analysts believe that a dual SIM smartphone will be launched by Jio. Merril Lynch, an analyst at the Bank of America stated that it is believed that a potential dual SIM handset will be launched by Jio as it is attractive to the consumers to continue to use their current telco SIM to make voice calls. The Jio SIM is likely to provide access to cheaper high speed data services.
The firm will be launching an array of smartphones and tablets at different price points to eradicate the barrier to mass adoption of the broadband services.
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