Back in October last year, a report said that Reliance Jio will stop the JioPhone production to focus on Android smartphone, but it resumed the sale of the phone later. Today at an event TL Lee, Head of Mobiles at MediaTek said that the company will partner with Reliance Jio to launch a new Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone in India this year under the LYF brand. He also said that the phone will be powered by MT6739 SoC. JioPhone uses Spreadtrum SP9820A and Qualcomm 205 SoCs.
MediaTek already announced its support for Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphones. Android Oreo (Go Edition) is Google’s trim down version of Android for low-cost phones with 512MB to 1GB RAM. Google announced the project back in May and said that it would be available from early 2018.
Android Go Edition- powered phones will have Pure and true Android experience, and Google said that Android runs well on phones with less than 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage in these phones. Google’s slimmed-down versions of core apps like Google Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, YouTube Go, Google Assistant Go, Files Go makes this possible.
Micromax already confirmed that it will launch BHARAT GO Android Oreo Go Edition smartphone, which is rumored to cost around Rs. 2000. HMD Global is also said to launch Nokia 1 Android Oreo Go Edition smartphone in March this year. Reliance Jio’s phone is expected to be subsidized, similar to the JioPhone.
At the event, T L Lee, General Manager, Wireless Communication, MediaTek, said:
India is growth intensive, a market of immense opportunities with its own set of aspirations and needs. We continue to intensify our technology collaboration in India, even beyond smartphones, and recognise its importance in the global marketplace.
Kuldeep Malik, country head for corporate sales international at MediaTek India, in an interview to ET, said:
Jio is bullish on Android Go smartphone, and is working with us and the ODM partners to bring the device to the market in coming months. They have really pushed us to deliver Android Go-based device as soon as possible.
Android Go’s potential target is around 137 million feature phone users. We expect 4-5 vendors to come up with their offering by March.