Jio Phone Bookings Crossed 6 Million, Delivery To Start From September 21

The Jio Phone booking process was halted roughly a day-and-a-half after the company [started taking pre-orders for the handset on August 24. Now sources close to the company have revealed that Jio Phone bookings crossed 6 million units within a day, a figure that apparently exceeded Reliance Jio’s expectations, though Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said at the Jio Phone launch the company is aiming to make 5 million units of the phone available to the public every week.

Earlier, Reliance Jio had halted bookings for its first feature phone saying “millions” had already booked the Jio phone, but it did not give a concrete figure. Apart from the 6 million bookings, an additional 10 million people have registered interest in the device via the Keep Me Posted form on the company’s site.

Reliance Jio reportedly aims to sell 100 million units of Jio Phone in the first year, and another 100 million units the next year. With these 200 million units, the company would be able to bring on board consumers who did not join the Jio telecom network that was launched last year, likely due to the prohibitive costs of smartphones. At the July 21 AGM, Ambani had announced the company has a user base of 125 million.

Jio Phone deliveries will start on Navratri, which begins on September 21 this year, the sources say. This will end the confusion about the Jio Phone delivery date as the company has not officially given a schedule yet, except that it will start shipping sometime in September. Bookings for the first Jio-branded phone from metros, tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural areas in roughly the same amount.

The process to book Jio Phone faced initial glitches as the demand for the handset exceed the Jio.com website and MyJio app’s server capacity, and users were unable to place their orders for the first hour or so. However, the issues smoothened out later, and bookings went on till the next day. The app, website, and authorised offline stores are the only means to pre-book the handset. Early on August 26, the bookings were suspended, with the company asking prospective customers to sign up to get notifications for the next sale via its website.

At present, both the MyJio app and an IVR number do not provide much information on the Jio Phone delivery status. However, with September 21 now confirmed by Jio sources as the date for start of deliveries, the wait might just become a little easier. Of course, it is likely the deliveries will be made in phases, depending on how early you were able to place the order. The phone is “essentially free,” though buyers have to pay Rs. 1,500 as security deposit – Rs. 500 at the time of booking and the remaining Rs. 1,000 at the time of picking it up.

Jio Phone features and specifications

The 4G VoLTE feature phone has a 2.4-inch display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor under the hood, backed by 512MB of RAM. The operating system keeping the handset running is KAI OS, and the Jio Phone has 4GB of internal storage, with microSD support up to 128GB. You get Wi-Fi support, 2000mAh battery, and NFC for digital payments.

Unique features of Jio Phone include support for 22 Indian languages, a voice assistant to control certain functions, and the option to mirror content playing on the phone to the TV using a proprietary cable. The first Jio-branded phone will come preloaded with apps such as JioCinema, JioMusic, JioTV, and JioXpressNews, along with popular instant messaging and social networking apps.