Reliance AGM: What really is Jio Cloud PC and how will it help gulf digital divide?

After revolutionising 4G services and fibre in the country over the last few years, Reliance Jio platforms now plan to bring a PC to every home. By introducing the new JioAirFiber service and Jio Cloud PC, Reliance says people will be able to do away with all expenses related to buying computer hardware and periodically upgrading it.

The Jio Cloud PC will be a virtual PC hosted in the cloud. This is likely to be compact hardware (just like a router) with one HDMI, four USB, one LAN and a 3.5mm port and will have to be connected with a display, keyboard and mouse. Although the configuration and pricing details of the Jio Cloud PC aren’t available as of now, but going by how Jio revolutionized 4G networks for an average India, the service can be priced nominally. According to Jio, this will not involve any upfront investment or tension of periodical upgrading. A user will be able to pay only to the extent used, which will result in a super-affordable way to bring the power of a PC, even multiple PCs, to every Indian home and business.

“Largely, I think it means to reduce the TCO ( Total cost of ownership) and accessibility and bridge the digital divide. However, there will be a big learning curve to overcome the resistance to use especially looking at the target audience or first-time users,” says Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research told Business Today.

Other than eliminating the digital divide, Jio Cloud PC can help in reducing piracy of software in a big way.

“With Cloud PCs, users will be able to simply pay for, and consume the software as a service in a secure way. They will no longer need to worry about time-consuming, capital-intensive PC architecture, installation and operational management tasks – all of which will be vendor-operated, and can instead, focus on being creative, productive, and most importantly, enjoy power performance. In the aftermath of the pandemic, and with new enterprises and consumers joining India’s growing digital economy from Aspirational India, Jio Cloud PCs will be game changers,” says Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR).

Last but not the least, if with Jio Cloud PC, one can eliminate upgrading PC hardware in the coming years, it could contribute in a big way to reducing ewaste. India generated 1,014,961.2 tonnes of e-waste in 2019-2020, ranking third after USA and China.

Jio says this super affordable way to bring the power of a PC, even multiple PCs to every Indian home and business can be a game changer for every student, every gig worker, and every small business in our country including a pharmacy, a doctor's clinic, a grocer or a hotel. Everyone can get an affordable computer through Jio Cloud PC and Jio Air Fiber. Even large enterprises can use this solution and Reliance Group itself, which uses a lot of computers, now plans to now replace most of these with Jio Cloud PC.

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