Upcoming Vivo-Jio locked in phone to herald new trend in India

New Delhi: As reports surfaced that the upcoming Vivo smartphone Y1s will be bundled with Reliance Jio for an attractive price, industry watchers on Thursday said the locked phones strategy would help Jio further scratch the surface before it launches its own branded smartphones in the future.

First spotted by tipster Mukul Sharma who also revealed that Vivo Y1s is expected to be priced around Rs 8,000 in India, the device buyers will get "a choice to lock-in their device with the Jio network to enjoy some special benefits".

According to Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, Jio has been aggressive to date with brand partner offerings that have been heavily focused on data bundling.

"But data bundling is quite common and locked phones is something which has not been tested at a scale in India. This will surely help Jio but more important is that it gives an idea to Jio how device locked phone strategy can play out in an open market like India if it rolls out its own branded smartphones in future," Pathak told IANS.

The Vivo Y1s is an entry-level smartphone for the offline market in India and the launch date is yet to be announced.

The company is also launching the much-awaited Vivo V20 Pro on December 2.

According to reports, those who buy Vivo Y1s locked with Jio will get an additional 10 per cent cashback, OTT/data benefits and one-time screen replacement offer.

Pathak said that the consumers weigh a lot of things before purchasing a smartphone and OTT/data benefits will be one of differentiators.

"Other key differentiators will be on the trade-in value of a device if someone upgrades these locked phones in future for which ecosystem is still developing," he noted.

The Vivo Y1s reportedly features a 6.22-inch HD+ resolution display with a water-drop notch for the selfie shooter and houses MediaTek Helio P35 processor paired with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage. There is a 3GB RAM variant as well.