Always Connected PCs have been announced a few months back by
Qualcomm and Microsoft. Several devices from HP, Asus, and
Lenovo have already launched or will launch soon in the market.
Many carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint in the US and
major carriers in Germany, Italy, the UK, France, and Australia
have agreed to support this new category of
devices. However, no service provider agreed to support
Always Connected Windows 10 PCs in India, until now.
India is a huge market for smartphones and laptops as well. 4G
connectivity and services are now booming in India thanks to
Reliance Jio which shook the market by providing high-speed 4G
VoLTE services in India at the fraction of the cost charged by
other service providers. This strategy made Jio the fastest
growing network service provider in the world. This growth
temped all other service providers in India to lower the cost
of data services. India is now the top country in terms of
mobile data usage.
Reliance Jio has plans to launch Windows 10 laptops with 4G
connectivity
Reliance Jio is now in talks with chip maker Qualcomm to launch
Always Connected PCs in India bundled with their 4G data and
services. Smartphones are great devices for media consumption
on the go but real productivity always requires a PC.
Connectivity has always been an issue with laptops and people
always had to rely on public Wi-Fi hotspots for connecting
their laptops to the internet. Microsoft and Qualcomm have
decided to bring an end to this problem by introducing Always
Connected PCs. Reliance Jio is now planning to bundle
these new devices with 4G data to launch them in India.
Miguel Nunes, senior director and product management at
Qualcomm Technologies, told “…we have talked to Jio. They
could take the device and bundle it with data and content,”
Qualcomm is also in talks with Indian company Smartron to bring
laptops powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC to India. These
laptops will have cellular connectivity.
What are Always Connected PCs?
Always Connected PCs are a new category of Windows 10 PCs
powered by ARM processors rather than the traditional Intel or
AMD chips. ARM processors have a highly efficient architecture
which provides really good battery life to PCs. This is the
reason why mobile phones are powered by ARM processors. The
main highlight when it comes to PCs is connectivity. These PCs
will have slots for inserting a SIM card or will have an
inbuilt e-SIM which will provide high-speed internet access.
Another advantage of these PCs is that they can be made
extremely thin when compared to Intel or AMD powered laptops.
Microsoft worked with Qualcomm to emulate Windows 10 to run on
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 Soc. Though the initial batch of
devices scored poor in benchmarks, that is not the case with
real-world usage. Mobile processors like the Snapdragon 835 and
845 are really capable of doing complex tasks and real-world
usage shows that Always connected PCs are good enough for most
people who travel a lot. These people need seamless
connectivity and great battery life which can easily be
provided by Always Connected PCs.
Laptops with internet connectivity are the next big thing
Smartphones are getting more and more powerful but they still
haven’t matched up with the productivity capabilities of a
laptop. According to Counterpoint Research, almost 5
million laptops are sold every year in India and most of these
devices are connected to the internet via enterprise or public
or home Wifi hotspots.
Neil Shah, research director of devices & ecosystems at
Counterpoint Research, said “So if these
productivity-centric devices are connected to cellular
networks, it will boost the value proposition, driving growth
for this segment: first, by providing ubiquitous connectivity
on the go and, second, in terms of privacy and security as the
cellular connectivity is highly secure compared to WiFi
hotspots,”
Counterpoint Research also provided a good statistics as to how
much network service providers can earn if they provide
connectivity to laptops. If they are able to sell at least 1
million Always Connected PCs (which is 20% of all the laptops
sold in India), they can charge anywhere between Rs 300 (US$5)
to Rs 1000 (US$15) a month depending on data usage. This will
give them a revenue of $5 million or Rs 30 crore a month or a
minimum of Rs 360 crore per year to more than Rs 1000 crore a
year.
This seems to be a win-win situation for everyone. The
customers will get seamless 4G connectivity and great battery
life. Network service providers will get new revenue from
laptop users. Laptop manufacturers will be able to sell a new
category of devices and finally, Microsoft will get more happy
Windows 10 customers.
Reliance Jio offers much more than just 4G data and services.
These additional products include Jio TV, Jio Music, Jio
Cinema, Jio Chat, Jio Mags, Jio Xpress News, Jio Money, Jio
Security and Jio NewsPaper. Jio will be the first network
provider in India to provide support for Always Connected PCs.
There is a high probability that Jio will bring at least some
of the above-mentioned products to these Windows 10 laptops and
if that happens, Jio will definitely reach new heights.
