Indian startup Ringing Bells recently announced plans to launch a smartphone that would sell for less than $4. Not surprisingly, the company got a lot of attention for that.
Also not surprisingly, a lot of people questioned whether this was possible… or if Ringing Bells was running some sort of scam. The fact that the early demo units of the Freedom 251 smartphone that the company showed off were clearly a competitor’s phone with a sticker placed over the logo didn’t help things.
But I still kind of figured that maybe it was possible… after all, we’d seen cheap electronics launched for the Indian market before, and India’s Defense Minister was on-hand at the launch event… so I figured maybe the government was helping subsidize the price.
Now it looks increasingly likely that the Ringing Bells Freedom 251 will never see the light of day.
Update: Surprisingly the phone is starting to ship. Unsurprisingly, only a small number will be available at launch and the Freedom 251 costs more than $4 to produce and Ringing Bells is seeking a government subsidy to help cover costs.
The Ringing Bells website is no longer taking orders for the phone and makes no promise of a delivery date for customers that have already placed orders.
Some have been concerned since day one that Ringing Bells was running a Ponzi scheme, and after receiving numerous complaints, the government has been investigating the company.
Ringing Bells has said that the reason it showed a rival’s phone was because theirs was still in development, but that it would have similar specs. But if that’s true, we’d be talking about a phone that sells for less than the price of a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero… but which has a screen, a battery, a camera, built-in storage, and other features which should make it substantially more expensive.
Many have also pointed out that it’s hard to believe the company could deliver a usable smartphone for $4.
There are smartphones that sell for under $40. But there’s a big difference between an actual $40 phone and a hypothetical $4 one.
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realjjj is sad.
They could BOM a dumb phone at 10$ easy. Smart won’t even be tight at 15$.
The Style Nazi here: in English, the dollar sign always goes before the dollar amount. Unless Yoda you are, wrongly entries making for funny seeming.
You know what they say about things being too good to be true.
I’d blame the Govt for being dumb. They probably setup these guys and it blew on their faces.
all these dreamy stories out 1001 night …. uuppss that was neighbour persia.
i think its still possible, by taking surplus/reject parts and Frankenstein them together.
slap the software with 4gb worth of adware and walla..
clearly its a scum , if it was Chinese maybe because all the parts manufactured in china and could be cheaper , but from India .. no way .. they import all the parts (or lets say 80%) … but even if its a Chinese phone , still can believe its possible for $4 .