Reliance seeks repeat of phone success with $184 laptop: Sources

The JioBook, which will be embedded with a 4G sim card, will be available to schools and government institutes from this month, while a consumer launch is anticipated within the next three months

Reliance Jio will soon launch a laptop priced at just ₹15,000 rupees — one of the cheapest on offer in India —aiming to replicate the success of its low-cost phone, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance and its telecoms unit Jio had upended the world's no. 2 mobile market with cheap 4G data plans and free voice services in 2016. Last year, it followed that up with its 4G JioPhone.

The laptop, to be called JioBook and which will be embedded with a 4G sim card, will be available to customers such as schools and government institutes from this month while a consumer launch is anticipated within the next three months, the sources said. As with the JioPhone, a 5G-enabled version is set to follow.

"This will be as big as JioPhone," one of the sources told Reuters.

The sources declined to be identified as the launch plans have not been made public. Jio, India's biggest telecom carrier with more than 420 million customers, did not respond to a request for comment.

The JioPhone has been India's top-selling smartphone priced under $100, accounting for a fifth of that market segment over the last three quarters, according to Counterpoint Research. The segment accounts for 9% of the country's smartphone sales.

JioBook will run on the JioOS operating system, the sources said, adding that some of Microsoft's apps will also be available. It will use Qualcomm chips based on technology from Arm Ltd, they added.