India's Reliance Industries has asked local suppliers to increase production capacity, aiming to produce up to 200 million cheap smartphones for the company in the next two years, US media reported on the 23rd.
Reliance Industries is in talks with Indian manufacturers to make Android enabled smartphones for its GIO platform, valued at about 4000 rupees (about $54), according to a source quoted by the news agency. The mobile phone will be sold together with the low-cost wireless communication package of the GIO platform.
Reliance Industries plans to sell 150 million to 200 million smartphones in the next two years, the report said. About 165 million smartphones were assembled in India in the year to the end of March, one fifth of which cost about 7000 rupees (about $100), according to the mobile phone and Electronics Association of India.
In July, Reliance Industries formed an alliance with Google. Google announced at the time that it would invest $4.5 billion in GIO platform in exchange for a 7.7% stake in the latter. The two companies said the investment plan includes a joint development of an entry-level smart phone at an affordable price. In view of the fact that the cooperation plan between the two sides still needs to be approved by the regulatory authorities, Reliance Industries has launched the low-cost smart phone plan first.
Neil Shah, head of research at canterboint research, said: "the GIO platform will have an opportunity to reach more than 500 million Indians who do not have smart phones and trigger blue ocean market opportunities."
Gio platform holds many assets of reliance industrial digital business, including telecom enterprise GIO communication company. Three years after its establishment, GIO has become the largest wireless operator in India. Sanford Bernstein predicted in a report in June that GIO may occupy 48% of India's mobile communication user market by 2025. CNN reported in July that since April, GIO has accumulated about $20 billion in investment.