Alphabet (GOOGL) Boosts India Reach With Reliance Partnership

Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google is making strong efforts to expand its presence in India on the back of its strategic partnerships and robust technologies.

The recent extension of its partnership with the massive India-based conglomerate, Reliance, testifies to the above-mentioned fact.

Notably, Google and Reliance are gearing up to introduce a budget 5G smartphone in India. This is going to be the most affordable smartphone in India with advanced features.

Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus

Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote

Benefits of the Move

With the latest move, both companies strive to offer an ultra-affordable smartphone to Indians to get connected to high-speed Internet, which has become the need of the hour amid the pandemic.

The move will strongly benefit that part of the Indian demography, which still cannot afford to purchase a smartphone with robust features.

The underlined smartphone will expand Reliance and Google’s presence in India’s smartphone market, which is known to be the world’s second-largest mobile market.

According to a ResearchAndMarkets report, the smartphone market of India is anticipated to reach $281 billion by 2028 from $139 billion in 2021, witnessing a CAGR of 10.5%.

We believe that the introduction of this 5G smartphone will intensify smartphone competition for the existing players like Apple, Samsung, One Plus, OPPO, Vivo, Motorola, Xiaomi and realme, owing to its smart features and affordable price.

Strengthening Ties With Reliance

The latest partnership reflects the growing relationship of Google with Reliance, which remains a major positive.

Last year, Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance, launched JioPhone Next, which has been developed in collaboration with Google.

Notably, JioPhoneNext’s operating system is an optimized one powered by Android. Further, it includes Google Assistant, smart camera with augmented reality filters and HDRsupport, language translation, and an automatic read-aloud of screen text feature.

Apart from this, Google struck a cloud partnership with Jio Platforms to support the later in the 5G push with technology solutions. Notably, Jio Platforms leverages Google Cloud’s AI, machine learning, e-commerce and demand forecast services for rolling out 5G services.

We believe that the strengthening ties of Google with Reliance will aid Alphabet’s presence in the promising telecom market of India. Bolstering prospects of Alphabet in India, where digitization has reached its peak, is likely to instill investor optimism in the stock in the days ahead.

Coming to the price performance, Alphabet has lost 24.8% on a year-to-date basis against the industry’s decline of 28%.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Alphabet currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors interested in the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector can consider some better-ranked stocks like Arista Networks ANET, ASE Technology ASX and Monolithic Power Systems MPWR. Arista Networks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), whereas ASE Technology and Monolithic Power Systems carry a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arista Networks has lost 15.4% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for ANET is currently projected at 18.6%.

ASE Technology has lost 26.9% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for ASX is currently projected at 23.1%.

Monolithic Power Systems has lost 6.4% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for MPWR is currently projected at 25%.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.