While Nokia simply relied on nostalgia to relaunch the Nokia 3310 feature phone in 2017, Reliance Jio introduced smart innovations to make its feature phone, Jio Phone, useful in 2017. The Nokia 3310 (2017) for a whopping price of Rs 3,310 seems like a waste of money when compared to the recently announced Jio Phone. New caretakers of the Nokia brand, HMD Global, seems to have lost a huge opportunity to take back what was theirs—the leadership in the Indian feature phone market.
Recalling the relaunch of the 2.5G Nokia 3310 (2017) in February, HMD Global had just the Nokia tune, Snake Game and fun colours to share. No real innovation. Surprisingly, HMD Global even priced it at Rs 3,310 in India to ride the nostalgia. For most of us, the relaunch of Nokia 3310 meant the death of feature phones in terms of innovation and signified that in no way possible affordable feature phones could be made useful (or at least 4G compatible) in 2017.
While it is too early to comment on how much the Jio Phone will actually deliver, at least it has opened a new door of possibilities for 50 crore feature phone users. The Jio Phone could once again tickle the interests of domestic handset makers to introduce affordable feature phones with 4G support because internet on 2G should have been history by now.
Here are five features of the Jio Phone that could kill the new Nokia 3310 (2017).
1) 4G VoLTE support: The Jio Phone is a 4G VoLTE powered feature phone which will allow people to browse the Internet with ease. With the Nokia 3310, users can only hope to connect to the Internet using slow 2.5G speeds. The experience on a small screen will be choppy but at least Jio Phone users have got a better option.
2) NFC Payments: This sounds really ambitious, but the Jio Phone is claimed to support NFC payments and somewhat offers a hope that NFC payments can go mainstream in India soon. This feature is not even available in budget smartphones, forget about the Nokia 3310 (2017).
3) Entertainment Apps: The Jio Phone offers the enter suite of Jio apps for free. This includes unlimited access to music, movies, Live TV and more. The entire Jio experience has been carried forward to a feature phone. As far as the Nokia 3310 (2017) is concerned, the only fun you can have is with the Snake game.
4) Voice Commands: Many might argue that the Jio Phone is a smartphone in disguise, but a voice assistant in a feature phone is least expected. You can talk to your Jio Phone (in Hindi as well) to make calls, send SMS, play music and more.
5) TV Cable: The Jio Phone even aims to make old CRT TVs smart. User can connect their Jio Phone to TVs (all types) to watch Live TV through the app by paying Rs 309 per month additionally.
Price: The Nokia 3310 (2017) costs Rs 3,310. Why? We don’t know. The Jio Phone with an effective cost of Rs 0 can be purchased by paying a security deposit of Rs 1,500. This amount is refundable after three years after the handset is returned (in working condition). Users can avail free calls, SMS, unlimited data and access to Jio apps for as little as Rs 153 per month with subscription to Jio DDD plans. You also have the option to go for sachets at Rs 54 (valid for a week) and Rs 24 (valid for 2 days).
(Disclaimer: News18.com is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited)
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