No JioPhone 3, but here’s everything Mukesh Ambani announced at Reliance's 42nd annual general meeting today

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio on Monday made a number of announcements at the company' 42nd annual general meeting. From its HoloBoard mixed-reality to its partnership with Microsoft over Azure integration, Jio covered almost everything - except for one major announcement that was missing. As you must have probably guessed it, we are talking about JioPhone 3. 

Since its debut in 2017, JioPhone has always been a hot topic of Reliance's annual general meetings. But to everyone's surprise, Jio skipped the JioPhone announcement this time around. Instead, the company spent a lot of time talking about its mixed-reality headset and the commercial rollout of its broadband service, apart from its growth in the last three years. 

Earlier this year, Counterpoint reported JioPhone helped feature phone shipments grow faster than smartphone shipments in 2018. According to analysts, the year 2018 recorded faster feature phone shipments for the first time ever. Counterpoint reported JioPhone was the overall market leader last year and Reliance's feature phone segment grew 11 per cent. 

So, it was expected of Reliance to announce JioPhone 3, the successor to Reliance JioPhone 2, with better features and specifications. 

Meanwhile, Republic World has also learned that Reliance may not have plans to announce JioPhone 3 in India anytime soon. More details and clarity is awaited on that front, though. 

As for expectations, users have been hoping Reliance JioPhone 3 to be more powerful and more feature-rich than the JioPhone 2 with services like Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube pre-installed. 

While that did not happen, here’s a closer look at some of the other key announcements from Reliance's AGM today.

Jio HoloBoard mixed-reality headset

Jio announced its mixed-reality headset called Jio HoloBoard supported by Jio GigaFiber at Reliance's 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM). Jio says this headset can be used to shop on e-commerce websites and consume content online. HoloBoard is made by a company called Tesseract, which is one of the many startups Jio has invested in. Jio said it will be available in the markets soon at an 'extremely affordable price.' 

Jio's multiplayer online gaming network

Jio also announced India's first multiplayer online gaming network. The service that comes with 4K set-top box and supports 4K gaming promises zero latency. The service has been announced with support for titles from Tencent, Gameloft, Microsoft and more.

Jio partners with Microsoft

Jio and Microsoft have entered into a long-term partnership. As part of this collaboration, Jio will integrate Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform with its network. The announcement was made at Reliance's 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Commercial availability of Jio Fiber

Reliance Jio's broadband service called Jio Fiber will be rolled out for everyone from 5th September.  As a result, all Jio Fiber subscribers will have to choose a tariff plan as soon as the service rolls out commercially for all existing and new customers.