In India, Reliance Jio's mobile operator intends to present an ultra-budget JioBook laptop worth only $184 with an integrated SIM 4G map. The company expects to repeat the success of its budget smartphone, JioPhone, which is extremely popular in the country, with low-cost models in demand.
The JioBook laptop is known to be developed in collaboration with the operator Qualcomm and Microsoft. The first delivers chipsets based on the Arm architecture, and the second supports the model of some popular applications.
Jio is India's largest mobile operator with more than 420 million clients. From this month, the JioBook laptop will be available to corporate clients like schools and government agencies, and will be released to a wider audience in the next three months. Soon after the 4G version, the fifth-generation version will debut.
According to IDC researchers, 14.8 million PCs were sold in the country last year, with HP, Dell, and Lenovo leading sales. According to experts, the release of JioBook would potentially expand the segment of the laptop market by at least 15%.
JioBook is known to be working on a pro-prietary operating system called JioOS, and applications can be downloaded from the JioStore marketplay. In addition, Jio focuses on the possibility of using an affordable laptop as an alternative to desk tablet for office staff.
Since being marketed at the end of last year, JooPhone has become the top sales leader in the smartphone segment of less than $100, according to Counterpoint Research, in the last three quarters it accounts for about 20% of the market.