I hope that every one of us would have known about Freedom 251 – The cheapest smartphone in the world. What I feel personally is that this product Freedom 251 will soon be one of the biggest mass marketing scams of India. Okay so let me tell you in detail (following are some rough calculations):
- The company Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. has to pay at least 3% to Payment Gateway as transaction charges. It will be around 8 INR or so.
- The packing and printing of a user manual will take anywhere between INR 15-20.
- INR 27 is the minimum cost of manufacturing a low quality charger.
- Cheapest quality earphones can’t be produced in less than 18 INR.
- Lowest quality 1450 mAh Li-Ion battery can be produced at 30 INR.
So, even if they provide the cheapest material, they have to spend INR 103 for the accessories itself.
I once again repeat that the above calculations are made roughly. So it got nothing to do with the companies plan.
So, 251-103= INR 148 is the budget for developing the entire phone along with 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB storage, Display, Touch Panel, 2 Camera Modules with 0.3 megapixels and 3 Megapixels respectively, Antennas, NAND flash, Application processors, Baseband, Light and motion sensors, speakers, mic, body, covering and last but not the least labor and machinery.
(Also recently that the company has stated that it will be making a profit of INR 31 per piece, so to be precise, 148-31= INR 119 will be the budget now | Source : The Economic Times)
Also read “World’s Most ‘Military Grade’ Secure Smartphone Solarin“.
Also they are offering one year warranty for the device and 6 months warranty for the accessories. If, there is any issue with the quality of product and performance, then they will refund your money for sure.
Also, Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. has stated that they will produce 50 Lakh phones in India itself without importing any of the components/accessories from abroad within a span of 4 months. This looks impossible due to following reasons:
- As stated by R&D head of Micromax, it takes at least 6 months to set up a factory alone (without including the manufacturing period of 50 lakh phones).
- Even if they somehow managed to manufacture 50 lakh phones, it will practically take at least 2 months to ship those 50 lakh units.
- The company has not received BIS certification yet, which means that they aren’t yet legally permitted to sell even one single unit in India.
- Government & the company, both have denied that there is no subsidy or financial aid given to produce Freedom 251.
- The company itself was started few months back and has not raised any investment. So how are they going to set up factories since the price of the phone would not even be sufficient enough to buy its components.
- The company claims that they will be setting up 650 service centers across the country and offices in major cities within months. But they have only one 750 sq. feet office in Noida. Nothing else.
- None of the directors of the company has any prior experience in smartphone market and they claim that they will take up the 30% of the total market before the end of this year. This statement sounds fake.
So, what I feel personally is that this 3.5$ or INR 251 smartphone thing is nothing but a huge scam. And if it’s not, then Mr. Mohit Goel deserves The Nobel price for social innovation. Wondering who is Mr. Mohit Goel??? Well, he is the founder & Managing Director of the Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd.
Also read “World’s Cheapest Smartphone Namotel @ INR 99 Only“.
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