Reliance Jio is going to shake things up with their Rs 1,000 4G phone

India may no longer recognise Rs 1,000 as a legitimate currency note but Reliance seems not to care. After making sure that anyone and everyone could get free (but pretty crap) 4G data till the end of the year, the Mukesh Ambani-led company is all set to launch a 4G VoLTE ready phone, that costs no more than Rs 1,000.

According to the Economic Times, this feature phone (a mobile phone that incorporates features such as the ability to access the internet and store and play music but lacks the advanced functionality of a smartphone) will have integrated voice and video calling. The phone will reportedly run on Android and will have a keyboard and a front facing camera, but lacks a touch screen.

The report states that there will be two feature phones, priced at around Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. Reliance is likely to launch these phones in the first quarter of 2017.

This is of course, not the first time that Reliance has tried to woo customers with low-priced products. Apart from Jio and its tempting offer of free data and calling for three months, Lyf - Reliance retail's brand of smartphones that was launched in India in 2016 - also offers decent smartphones, the cheapest of which costs Rs 3,499.

"If Jio launches VoLTE feature phones at ₹1,000, it can potentially shake up the market because the target audience in that segment may prefer to choose phones with free calling inbuilt," Navkendar Singh, a senior research manager with IDC told the Economic Times.

This may well be Relaince’s attempt to tap into the rural market, where many of its potential customers may be first-time users of mobile data.

According to an August report by market tracker Counterpoint Research says that Reliance's Lyf smartphones have become the fifth largest player in the Indian market capturing 8 per cent of the market share.

Reliance’s forays into telecom sector seem to have been a bit of a struggle so far, with Jio’s poor overall performance. It is estimated that more than 75 calls fail on the network out of every every 100 call attempts, and its “wondrous” free 4G data is horrendous at best.

Apart from that, there have been multiple instances of Lyf smartphones catching fire or exploding. But with this Rs 1,000 4G VoLTE ready feature phone, Reliance will change the game for phone brands across the country.

Also read - iPhone users, don't even think about Jio