During its 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Reliance officially announced its Jio Cloud PC – a virtual PC that will be hosted using the new Jio AirFiber (5G) technology. The device is claimed to bring the power of a desktop computer to all households and businesses at an affordable price.

Announcing its new device, Reliance Jio President Kiran Thomas said, "Owning a computer these days can be a hassle, as it needs to be upgraded and replaced every few years. With Jio AirFiber, people can do away with all the expenses related to buying computer hardware and regularly upgrade it, and choose to use a virtual PC hosted in the cloud – called Jio Cloud PC.”

Targeting mainstream PCs, the telco claimed that the Jio Cloud PC will be a game changer for many different demographics, including students, gig workers, accountants, etc. “With no upfront investment or tension of periodic upgrades, a user has to pay only to the extent of use , resulting in a super-affordable way to bring the power of a PC, even multiple PCs, to every Indian home and business,” Thomas added.

At its simplest, Jio Cloud PC will be a virtualization service that provides a full desktop experience on hardware that is not very desktop (read: less powerful). An easy way is to think of it as a streaming service. But instead of streaming movies and TV shows, it streams the output of the desktop operating system. The OS is also optimized for common input devices such as keyboard, touch screen and mouse to give the user a seamless desktop experience.