More mobile phone companies are gearing up to launch affordable 4G feature phone by the year-end, anticipating a pick-up in demand following Jio’s foray into the space, a top official of 4G chipset firm Spreadtrum said. “We are in talks with four-five players for launching phones (on Spreadtrum chipset). We expect they will be launching in the fourth quarter,” Spreadtrum Communications Country Head Neeraj Sharma told PTI. The company is also one of the suppliers of chipsets for JioPhone, a 4G feature phone by Reliance Jio. Home-grown mobile firm Lava has already launched a 4G feature phone using Spreadtrum chipset. Another mobile phone firm Intex has plans to launch 4G feature phone for Rs 1,999 by end of this month but it will use Mediatek chipset. “In India, still a large population is using feature phones which are primarily on 2G. With the arrival of Reliance (Jio) which is a greenfield LTE only network, it makes sense for companies to launch 4G fea...