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Why Nokia 3310 4G could spoil JioPhone's party

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Sushant Talwar
Sushant TalwarFeb 03, 2018 | 17:14

Why Nokia 3310 4G could spoil JioPhone's party

Finnish mobile phone maker, Nokia, made quite a name for itself during the late 1990s and early 2000s. For those simpler times, its portfolio boasted of a number of hits that were not only built like tanks, but also provided exceptional battery while promising hours of runtime for fun games like Snake and listening to FM radio.  

So, it was no surprise that the HMD Global-led Nokia hogged all the limelight when it announced the reboot of the iconic Nokia 3310 at the Mobile World Congress 2017. In the days to follow, the Nokia 3310 generated a lot of interest and ensured that its makers garnered many favourable headlines for this nostalgia-evoking phone.

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But soon after its launch, the frailties of Nokia's project started to expose themselves. Lack of several important features and some crippling bottlenecks meant users were left unimpressed. But it seems that did little to deter Nokia from working towards making this phone a market favourite once again. 

Enter Nokia 3310 4G

The Nokia 3310 4G, which was earlier expected to be unveiled at MWC, was launched in China on January 30. It brings with it support for 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hotspot. Unlike the 2G variant, it runs on YunOS, an operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), made by the Alibaba Group.

Even though the added support for 4G baseband makes the phone an interesting proposition for telecom markets like India, it is the Android-based OS that could help it become a winner. 

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The competition

Since the entry of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, a new space for 4G VoLTE phones has opened up in the country. Increased competition has ensured the fall of telecom tariffs to new lows, and in some cases making 4G plans even more affordable than legacy 2G networks. 

Over the past couple of months, a number of ultra-affordable devices have already made their way into the market to help almost 50 crore 2G subscribers make the switch to the state-of-the-art 4G basebands. However, the JioPhone with its massive reach and the effectively free tag has marked itself out as the biggest fish in the 4G ultra-affordable smart feature phone market. 

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But having said that, there's no denying it has its drawbacks, one's that the new Nokia 3310 will look to exploit.

More than worthy competition for JioPhone

However, in the Nokia 3310, the JioPhone could see a worthy competitor, which could very well blow it out of the water if its priced right. As of now, there has been no word on the pricing and availability of the Nokia 3310 4G, but once it does, expect it to be priced at the same Rs 3,310 price it sold for last year.

With its unique design, and hopefully the inclusion of applications like WhatsApp and Facebook, the 4G-ready 3310, would serve as a definite upgrade on the JioPhone, which till date does not run many important apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook. 

Further, the unlocked 3310 4G, with its promise to support any and every network operator in the country as opposed to JioPhone's approach of binding consumers within its own ecosystem, could well offer the phone a huge advantage and make it the perfect option for millions of 2G users in the country wanting to make the switch to not just a faster network, but more importantly the hugely popular Android ecosystem. 

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The JioPhone with its feature set, much like its pricing, is only an effective upgrade on the feature phone. For a country which serves as the biggest user base of WhatsApp and Facebook, the 3310 4G thus could well be the entry-level 4G feature phone that the country has been waiting for.

Last updated: February 03, 2018 | 17:14
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