Reliance Jio is reportedly planning to bring laptops equipped with Jio SIM for connectivity. As per a report, the laptop is likely to come with a 13.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, 4GB RAM, 64GB of internal storage or 128GB SSD (Solid State Drive), Bluetooth 4.0, 2 USB 3.0 ports, Micro HDMI port, and a Micro SD card slot. The laptop is likely to run on Windows or Chrome OS given all its apps support Android and iOS.
Jio has already achieved immense success with its 4G services. Its phone venture, Lyf, has also captured a decent market share. As per a research of Cybermedia, Lyf reigned supreme in the Indian market with 27 percent of shipments in the month of January this year.
This latest step could become another masterstroke by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. Here’s why.
No Competition
For long, the laptop and PC segment has been struggling with low sales. With the arrival of bigger and more powerful smartphones, tablet and PC sales have been dwindling as much of the tasks can be done on the move through a smartphone. Of course, some tasks need a PC but smartphones definitely have reduced the roles of laptops and PCs to some extent.
Yes, there have been constant launches by the traditional PC makers like Asus, Lenovo etc, but till now no other telcos even imagined this segment worth exploring.So now the Jio has virtually an open field.
It is remaining to see, if this laptop is meant for a particular section, e.g. students. The educational laptop segment is still in its nascent stage. Many companies have tried their hands in the segment. Recently, Apple came out with a new iPad just for the students. There is a huge opportunity in India in the segment.
Jio currently offering a host of VAS services for free for its subscribers. We would not be surprised to see if it brings some more VAS services for its laptop users for free.
Opportunity to sell more data
As per reports, after Jio’s arrival, the data consumption in India has jumped as much as 400 percent. A bigger credit for that goes to the falling data prices. For instance, before Jio other telcos were offering about 5 GB of data for around Rs 500 but now for the same price, you get more than 90 GB of data.
Still, the smartphone’s ability to use data is limited and with a laptop, Jio aims to increase data consumption by leaps and bounds.We would not be surprised if Jio heavily discounts the laptop as it did in case of the 4G feature phone.
Perfect timing
Jio is also known to be planning to launch its Broadband services. The Mukesh Ambani-led company is likely to offer both broadband and Internet TV connection via a single connection. This means you may not have to pay for your landline, broadband and cable TV connection separately.
A laptop just before the launch of broadband (or maybe they will be announced at the same time) would be just perfect. It may come out with bundled offers. Remember, Jio first launched 4G phones under Lyf brand first before rolling out its 4G services.
The launch of the laptop would also give Jio the elbow room to dole out further freebies.
In all, a laptop seems a perfect device for Jio to further encourage people to adopt its 4G services. But all these are just our speculations. Hopefully, we will hear more about it in the coming days.