JioPhone 2 went on sale today for the second time, giving willing consumers a chance to pick up the smart feature phone. However, it appears like Reliance Jio’s efforts to deliver 4G services to a larger audience isn’t going as planned as this second flash sale garnered only a lukewarm response.
The excitement for JioPhone 2, which brings along a horizontal-viewing experience and QWERTY keyboard, seems to have subsided. We’re saying this because it took an ample amount of time for the device to go out of stock as compared to the previous sale, when we picked up the device ourselves.
We were keeping tabs on today’s JioPhone 2 flash sale (which suggests huge demand and low supply) and noticed that the device was available for purchase even at 1:00 PM, an hour after the sale went live.
Update: Jio has just sent us a statement saying, “While we cannot share any numbers right now, we can say that the JioPhone 2 sales were very good. We have enough stock with us and we don’t want a situation like other flash sales that are closed in seconds and only a few people are able to get it. We want to reach out to as many people we can. While taking bookings, we are also making sure that consumers are getting deliveries on time.”
As for the reason for the same, it’s simple and straightforward. JioPhone 2 comes with a myriad of Jio apps, Facebook, and even Google Maps. However, the Indian masses have now grown weary of waiting for essential apps like WhatsApp and YouTube to finally make their debut on KaiOS.
And while there has been chatter that YouTube is coming soon, WhatsApp has just been faced with delays over the past few months and there’s still no word on the launch date yet. We did get a chance to try out YouTube and WhatsApp on the original JioPhone, but the apps haven’t seen the light of day.
This could be one of the prominent reasons that the second flash sale for the JioPhone 2 didn’t attract the response we might’ve been expecting. Nonetheless, we have the device at the Beebom office and it’s a great feature phone for its Rs 2,999 price tag.
If you were unable to grab the JioPhone 2 today, the next flash sale is scheduled for September 6th at 12:00 PM on Jio.com. So, are you looking to get this smart feature phone? Let us know in the comments below.
