Saturday 20 February 2016

Ringing Bells Stops Taking Bookings for Freedom 251 Smartphone


Ringing Bells, the makers of the world's cheapest smartphone, on Saturday closed the booking for its 'Freedom 251' smartphone. Due to overwhelming response the booking got closed a day before. Earlier the company had announced the booking period from 18th to 21st February, 2016.

Announcing the closure of booking, the company said, "We are humble and extremely grateful for your overwhelming response and trust. Respectfully, this is to advise that the response far exceeds the number that we had expected and therefore, we are now closing the invitation to bookings in this phase 1."

The notice on the website read: "We appreciate and acknowledge that we may not have been able to meet the needs of all, but will definitely look forward to serving you again in the next phase."

According to the company, they received 37 million registrations on Day 1 (February 18) and 24.7 million on Day 2, which makes over 60 millions in total.

The previous post was regarding some facts about the smartphone which was encountered during the registration of the smartphone and here is what the company has said for some of the post that was listed

Coming to the Adcom branding seen on the smartphone, Ringing Bells President Ashok Chaddha clarified that it "wanted to show a sample or prototype of what the handsets will look like. This is not the final piece". "In view of the shortage of time and given that these were to serve only as prototypes to a limited list of persons, we went ahead. We would clearly mention that the final Freedom 251 manufactured/assembled in India would be to identical specs - i.e. no change," he added.

There were some issues with the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification too and the company says, Application is under filing and we expect to have the Certification in hand well before delivery commences.

Issuing a warning, BJP Member of Parliament Dr. Kirik Soumaiya, who is a Chartered Accountant and has a PhD in Financial Accounting, has issued a warning letter, and has requested the UP government to investigate the company, as the company and its claims look highly suspicious.

Current technology does not allow for a mobile phone to be manufactured at this cost. The bare minimum is around INR 3,800, even if it is subsidised. The company has made it clear that they have not received any subsidy, either from the government or any other third party for this project. Still the price is only Rs. 251.

So, the question still remains until and unless the smartphone gets delivered at the given time i.e. June 30th. 

No comments:

Post a Comment