Reliance launches JioBook, its maiden Android-powered laptop • TechCrunch

Jio Platforms has quietly launched its first laptop, entering into a new product category as the Indian telecom giant aggressively expands its offerings.

The laptop, called JioBook, runs Android-based JioOS and is selling at 15,799 Indian rupees, or $190. The laptop has been in the works for at least two years. The company quietly demonstrated it at Indian Mobile Congress trade show event last month.

JioBook’s specifications, as you would have guessed, are not very high-end. It sports a 11.6-inch display with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768. It is powered by Qualcomm’s 64-bit, 2GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. But the laptop does offer support for Jio 4G LTE out of the box and promises up to eight hours of battery life.

The firm says on its store page that the JioBook features up to 128GB of flash storage.

The laptop is the latest of a series of businesses Reliance, the Indian conglomerate and the parent firm of Jio Platforms, has entered in recent years. The firm, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, entered the telecom business six years ago and quickly became the top service provider in the country, thanks to the network’s cutrate data and voice tariffs.

Jio Platforms, which secured over $20 billion in funding from over 10 investors in 2020 including Meta and Google, has also launched feature phones and smartphones in the past half decade. The company’s JioPhone Next smartphone went on sale last year. Jio Platforms has worked closely with Google to develop a custom Android operating system for the smartphone.

(More to follow)