Expanding its arm in the electronics segment, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Retail, the retail vertical of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to launch cameras, electronic wearables, dongles and tablets under the Reconnect brand. Two people aware of the development confirmed to the Mint that after the success of its products like a computer mouse, mixers, blenders, television sets, speakers and others, new products would be launched under the same Reconnect brand. The products will be available in the Reliance Digital stores and online as well. As per the report, currently, the Tablets are in the pilot phase and are being tested with the employees. Last month, media reports suggested that Reliance Retail is set to expand its business-to-business play by foraying into the distribution of apparel, FMCG, and white goods since it wants to tap a larger pie of the market. The company plans to start a trial of apparel distribution from early this year and has already informed the vendors about it, as per various reports.
Currently, RIL also sells smartphones and smart television sets under the Lyf brand and Jio phones under the Jio brand. Last January, Reliance Retail started selling LYF phones through Reliance Digital and Digital Xpress stores and on mylyf.com—the phone’s official website. RIL has four variants of the Lyf phones, namely: Flame, Earth, Water and Wind and the company may launch more variants going forward. RIL announced the launch of Jio phone, its feature phone in August. The phone can be bought at Rs1,500, which has a provision of being refunded after three years. It offers a larger screen, access to apps, 4G data and 4G VoLTE calls. Jio Phone users will have to pay Rs153 a month. A weekly plan of Rs54 and a two-day plan of Rs24 is on offer.
The customer base of Reliance Jio has touched 160 million, Akash Ambani, had said at the RIL family day on 23 December. According to a joint study by the industry chamber Assocham and NEC Technologies released in June 2017, India’s electronics market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% for three years to cross $400 billion by 2020.
