Reliance Jio's 2G-free India drive likely to hit Vodafone Idea hard

About 60% of Vodafone Idea's customer base is in the 2G space

Mukesh Ambani’s plan to make India ‘2G-mukt’ will hit the incumbent operators hard, especially Vodafone Idea given its large base of 2G subscribers. After racking up 100 million users for its 4G-enabled feature phones (JioPhone), Reliance Jio in partnership with Google is eyeing the entry-level smartphone segment. Jio is planning to win over 350 million 2G feature phone users by launching a smartphone ‘at a fraction of the current cost’.

Experts believe that Jio, which dominates the mobile broadband space (4G) with 58 per cent market share, could capture the incumbents’ market share in the feature phone segment with its new offering. While Bharti Airtel has 135 million 2G users, 47 per cent of its total subscriber base of 283 million, Vodafone Idea has 174 million 2G users, about 60 per cent of its total subscriber base of 291 million at the end of the March quarter.

Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research at William O’Neil India, says: “Vodafone Idea has the highest 2G subscriber base among the top three operators. This coupled with a weak financial situation and inability to commit large capex investment will make it the most susceptible to subscriber loss. The ongoing churn for Vodafone could accelerate if Jio is able to launch a smartphone at a substantially lower cost in partnership with Google.”

Facebook suspends pre-installation of its apps on Huawei smartphones

The move by Facebook dampens the sales outlook for Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, whose smartphone business became its biggest revenue generator last year

Facebook Inc is no longer allowing pre-installation of its apps on Huawei phones, the latest blow for the Chinese tech giant as it struggles to keep its business afloat in the face of a US ban on its purchase of American parts and software.

Customers who already have Huawei phones will still be able to use its apps and receive updates, Facebook told Reuters. But new Huawei phones will no longer be able to have Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram apps pre-installed.

Smartphone vendors often enter business deals to pre-install popular apps such as Facebook. Apps including Twitter and Booking.com also come pre-installed on Huaweiphones in many markets. Twitter Inc declined to comment and Booking Holdings did not respond to a request.

The move by Facebook dampens the sales outlook for Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, whose smartphone business became its biggest revenue generator last year, powered by strong growth in Europe and Asia.

Alphabet Inc’s Google said earlier that it would no longer provide Android software for Huawei phones after a 90-day reprieve granted by the US government expires in August. But Google’s Playstore and all Google apps will still be available for current models of Huawei phones including those which have not yet shipped or even been built. The Facebook ban, by contrast, applies to any Huawei phone that has not yet left the factory, according to a person familiar with the matter. Facebook declined to comment on when the suspension took place.

Nokia 3310 makes a comeback with 22 hours of battery life, dual sim

Price in India, other countries can fluctuate a little bit because of taxation and cost factors

Finnish mobile device player Nokia is in reboot mode as it gets ready to bring to India its 17-year-old iconic Nokia 3310 handset for about Rs 3,500, along with its Android smartphones, next quarter.

"All the products that we have announced Nokia 3310, Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 will be available in the second quarter of this year in India. Average global selling price for Nokia 3310 is 49 euros," HMD Global Oy Chief Marketing Officer Pekka Rantala said.

HMD Global has licence to design and sell Nokia branded phones globally as well as use technologies developed by Nokia Corporation.

"Now, we are celebrating the new era of Nokia brand that is the reason we are with HMD Global. Let me also be very clear that we would not license the Nokia brand to just anybody. It means too much to us. We chose carefully. We looked at the market. We looked at Google to be our brand licensing partner which could do this for a long time," Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri said.

HMD Global also unveiled Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 smartphones for 189 euros and 139 euros built on Google's Android platform. The company has already been selling Nokia 6 in China. One model of Nokia 6 with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage will be retailed at around 229 euros and the other one with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory with support for external memory card will be available for around 299 euros.

Nokia 6 has 5.5-inch screen size, 8 MP front camera and 16 MP rear camera.

Nokia 3 and 5 have 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage and support memory card of up to 128 GB.

The Nokia 3 smartphone sports 5-inch screen size, 8 megapixel camera in the front and back. Nokia 5 has a 5.2-inch screen, 8 MP front and 13 MP back cameras.

Rantala said the price in India and other countries can fluctuate a little bit because of taxation and other cost factors associated with individual countries.

Nokia 3310, known for its robustness, was the most widely used feature phone globally in 2000-05. It is estimated to have sold 126 million units globally when there were only a few countries with mobile networks.

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