MUMBAI: Enjoying huge waves of success, Reliance Jio, within few months of its launch, plans to launch Android powered set-top boxes (STBs) in India. Following its idea of providing free 4G internet, this is believed to be Jio's second step in building their envisioned Digital Ecosystem in India.
Though they have not announced any date of the launch as of yet, several reports have surfaced hinting at the company’s plans to introduce three STBs, differing in prices and hardware. One will be the high-end STBs powered by Broadcom chipset, the other two would be powered by the Marvell processor. According to reports, the Broadcom powered by STB comes with dual core Brahma CPU and OGLES 3.1 GPU.
The three STBs are also rumoured to support 4K UHD by default and runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. However, the users would require a 4K supported TV for the best experience.
The devices come with a pre-installed Google PlayStore along with native Android apps. It also contains Jio Suite apps like Jio TV and Jio On Demand. With these STBs, the normal LCD/LED TV can be converted into a smart TV running on Android.
Instead of the regular IR remote controller, these boxes come with Bluetooth remote controllers. They can be also controlled with smartphones using the app, similar to something Xiaomi debuted in the U.S market a couple of weeks back. The remote controller also has a mic for voice search with LAN, USB, and HDMI ports along with built-in Wi-Fi support.
If reports are to be believed, the company has already imported 15,000 STBs priced at Rs. 5,500 per unit.