Jio at Rs 0: How social media reacted to the launch of the JioPhone

Mukesh_Ambani_Reliance_RIL

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani addressed the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the conglomerate in Mumbai on Friday, where one of the key announcements was the launch of the "effectively free" JioPhone.

Termed it the world's most affordable feature phone, it is a basic feature phone but will be 100 percent 4G compatible and support 22 major languages.

The phone will effectively cost Rs 0 as consumers will have to pay a fully refundable deposit of Rs 1,500. The money will be returned after three years.

Read more about Jio's new disruptive tariffs here.

The announcement was trending on social media and had occupied three trending slots on Twitter, with thousands of people talking about it.

Here's how Twitter reacted to the news:

One of them called the launch of the JioPhone a "big blow" to the telecom operators and phone manufacturers.

The introduction of #JioPhone is now a big blow to telecom and phone makers#Jio #RILAGM2017 #MukeshAmbani

— Prakash Gupta® (@BeingPkashGupta) July 21, 2017

Another one compared the launch of the JioPhone with that of the Apple iPhone.

While Americans go gaga over launch of new iphone, Indians go gaga over launch of almost free Jiophone :D

— Jayant UnKill (@jayantgajria) July 21, 2017

Twitter users also took note of the number of subscribers Jio has amassed. 

Reliance Jio Now Has Over 125 Million Subscribers, 7 Customers Added Every Second #MukeshAmbani #RILAGM2017

— Himani Rautela (@himanirautela) July 21, 2017

And, there were shades of 'Make in India', with people talking about replacing Chinese phones with their "own Indian phone".

This is an opportunity for all Indian to throw Chinese Mobile phone now and shift to our own Indian phone...Bravo #MukeshAmbani

— T C Meena (@jhanjhat) July 21, 2017

Some also posted images and videos of how they viewed the event.

It's raining #JioPhone at #RILagm2017. Standing ovation from valued shareholders