The specs look good, but will it actually work?
As of October 2014, 64 percent of American adults owned a smartphone. With many phones costing hundreds of dollars, that’s a lot of money spent on staying connected.
Just this month, Ringing Bells, an Indian company is launching the most affordable Smartphone ever—the Freedom 251—at 251 rupees (about 3.64 USD). The specs look legitimate, but there are many questions floating around about how a company could offer this type of phone for so little considering that just the pieces, even if sourced locally, wouldn’t come that cheap.
“A 3G device with the specs offered has a base manufacturing cost almost 8X higher than what’s being offered. So, we’re interested in learning of how they’ve achieved this, including all licensing fees, etc,” Sunit Singh Tuli, the CEO of Datawind who recently produced $35 tablets for the Indian government, told IndianExpress.com.
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Ringing Bells is insisting that they are not receiving government subsidies and that they will be depending on economies of scale.
“By going for Made in India components, we can save on the 13.8 percent, also we will be selling online first and thus save the costs incurred on large distribution networks,” said Ashok Chadha, Ringing Bells’ President according to a wiki page about the company. They hope to capture up to 30 percent of the smartphone market by the end of 2016.
Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO & Founder at Greyhound Knowledge Group, doesn’t believe the claims about the lack of government subsidizing.
“The phone is loaded with Make [sic] in India apps. Clearly, there seems to be some arrangement,” Gogia said to IndianExpress.com. He also emphasizes that price should not be the only factor in deciding on a phone.
“While smartphone is [sic] a factor of price, the other major factor is better touch experience and apps.”
The smartphone’s specs sound fairly average: a 4-inch WVGA resolution display, a 1.3 Ghz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage space, a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back, a 0.3 megapixel camera on the front, and a 1450 mAh battery.
As of now, the phones will take up to 4 months to ship and cannot be shipped outside of India. The whole thing may end up being a scam and there is no guarantee that anyone will actually receive the smartphones they ordered. But, for less than $4, perhaps it’s worth a try!
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