JioPhone delivery to begin from Sep 21, 6 million handsets booked

The bookings of Jio Phone has crossed more than 6 million within a day of the opening of booking on August 24. It was last month that Jio has announced the launch of JioPhone, aimed at the 50 crore feature phone market in India.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, also registered an additional 10 million expressions of interest for the JioPhone apart from the bookings.

These bookings, for the 'zero cost' phone, were all registered which was also the first day of bookings for interested customers from across the country.

The delivery of the "effectively free" JioPhone is being planned to start during Navratri festival beginning September21, the partner said.

"The pre-booking of JioPhone was put on hold after 6 million units were booked within first three days. We have been told by the company that the deliveries of JioPhone will start during Navratri," the channel partner, who asked not tobe named, told PTI. E-mails sent to Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail did not elicit any response. 

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, in his previous annual general meeting speech, had said the company plans to sell 5 million JioPhones every week. The pre-booking of JioPhones started on August 24 against payment of a refundable deposit of Rs 500 and the remainder Rs1,000 has to be paid by the customer when the company starts delivering them in September.

Ambani had announced that the total amount will be refunded after 36 months when the customer returns the phone. According to the industry source, nearly 10 million people have shown interest in JioPhone. According to Cyber Media Research, a total of 61.8 million mobiles were shipped in the second quarter of 2017.With 6 million units of sale, JioPhone is estimated to account for around 10 per cent of India's total mobile phone market ina quarter.

Ambani had announced that voice calling for customers of JioPhone would always be free and they would get unlimite ddata for a month against a payment of Rs 153. JioPhone, which can be operated by speaking out instructions to dial, type messages and the like, will comewith pre-loaded Jio apps for messaging and entertainment.

The phone can be connected with television sets for watching live TV using the Jio TV app. The phone will also include some of the popular instant messaging and social networking apps. 

With PTI Inputs.