Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. is all set to start sales of the world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs. 251, which is less than USD 4. Senior executives from the company have said that this has been made possible despite allegations that such a phone would not see the light of day.
Speaking about this, an executive from the Noida based startup said, The company has been able to keep its promise to consumers. We are ready with nearly two lakh Freedom 251 handsets. We will start delivery from June 30. Once we are done with this first phase of delivery, we will open registration again for those who wish to buy the handset. We learned from our mistakes and decided to go silent till we come out with the product. Now we have a 4-inch, dual-SIM phone ready for delivery. I feel vindicated. We are facing a loss of Rs 140-Rs 150 per unit, but hopes to make profit on volumes. We will have a loss, but I am happy that the dream of connecting rural and poor Indians as part of the Digital India and Make in India initiatives has been fulfilled with Freedom 251.
The Freedom 251 has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory and supports external memory cards of up to 32GB. It also sports an 8MP primary camera with flash, a 3.2MP front camera for selfie and a 1,800 mAh battery. It runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). The phone is available in two colours — black and white — with centrally aligned rear camera and branding on the back panel. It has a speaker just alongside the branding.
Our devices are completely Make in India and were manufactured at our Haridwar-based manufacturing unit. We plan to sell two lakh devices every month, said that company. They also said, We are also planning to launch a 32-inch high-definition LED television — also called Freedom — in the first week of July. These will be the cheapest television sets in India and will be available for less than Rs 10,000. Within two days, the delivery would be made and we will sell them online. The company currently has one lakh such pieces in stock. Our humble beginning to provide a high-tech gadget that will benefit all in the hinterland and bridge the huge gap that clearly exists between the metros and semi-urban/rural areas is in keeping with the government’s initiatives.