A $4.5-billion deal, under which Alphabet's Google will collaborate with India's Reliance Industries on a new smartphone, likely heralds a big shake-up for the world's second-largest mobile market, industry executives and analysts say.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, announcing the partnership at his company's annual meeting last week, said Google would build an Android operating system (OS) to power a low-cost "4G or even 5G" smartphone that Reliance would design.
The new phone is set to pose a major challenge to Chinese vendors such as Xiaomi and BBK Electronics, owner of the Realme, Oppo and Vivo brands, which currently dominate