Tuesday 28 June 2016

Two lakh units to be shipped via state-wise lucky draw between 30 June to 5 July :Freedom 251

Freedom 251, the popular or rather sensational smartphone to have made tech enthusiasts across the globe sit straight and take notice is finally ready to reach users’ doorsteps. CEO Mohit Goel tells  that the Rs 251 smartphone will be ready to ship from 30 June, and the 2 lakh units will be shipped by 4-5 July. Talking about the LED TV, Goel added that he expects 1 lakh units by 30 June, and will go on sale by the first week, without any wait time.
He said that the delay was due to the battery, and its ‘Made in India’ smartphone is now ready. So, one of main questions is out of the 7.5 crore registered users, who will receive the device. The first 2 lakh registrations? Well, Goel has different plans. He wants to ensure the device reaches across India, and has planned state-wise lucky draws for the device. “We got the highest number of registrations from UP and so we will have a draw, about 2.5 crore, and so after a lucky draw about 10,000 users from the state will get the device,” he said. Similarly, he has planned lucky draws for other states. The devices will be shipped between the said dates, and on a cash on delivery basis. “Users will pay us only once the device reaches us,” he said.
The Freedom 251 is priced around Rs 250, which means it could get them a cut of estimated Rs 500 on the Rs 2,500 bill of materials. However, selling Rs 2,500 device at Rs 251 would still incur losses in crores.
This was the pilot phase, and Goel is sill uncertain about the next phase of shipments. “The next phase will start if we see some positive signs and support from the government,” he added. On asking, what support he expect. Goel said they have been looking for a land for the factory and plants. He also suggested a subsidy or some form of support could help them achieve the 60 crore units figure that we plan for the nation.
The company plans to use a software for the draw, as many people have registered for multiple phones. The software will ensure one email ID will receive just one phone, he said.  “We have faced a lot of criticism and even had an FIR filed against us. We’ve been patient and taken it in our stride, and finally the phone is ready to be shipped,” he said.
Ringing Bells is not just pitting itself as a smartphone maker, but also wants to launch the world’s cheapest 32-inch high-definition LED television — also called “Freedom”.

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Freedom 251-maker Ringing Bells granted interim relief by Allahabad High Court

New Delhi: In some respite to India's cheapest smartphone makers, the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted interim relief to Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd - the Noida-based firm that created a global buzz after announcing the launch of the controversial Rs 251 Freedom 251 smartphone last month.
While hearing the plea, the division bench of Justice BK Narayan and justice Shashi Kant ordered the UP state government to furnish a status report on an urgent basis by April 5, further directing that no coercive steps be taken till then against the three top accused - directors Mohit Goel and Dharna Garg and president Ashok Chadha.
A first information report (FIR) was registered last week against Goel and company president Ashok Chaddha under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the Information Technology (IT) Act on a complaint filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya.
The court also directed the petitioners to submit their passports to SSP Noida within 24 hours.
According to lawyer Abhishek Vikram representing Ringing Bells, the three petitioners will "fully comply with the orders of the court by submitting their passport and will provide full cooperation to the investigation agency".
"We have nothing to hide. We are committed to affordable smartphones to people of this country and we shall achieve that. We will stick to fair practices and comply with regulations of our great country," Mohit Goel, director, Ringing Bells, told IANS.
"We remain committed to cooperate with any government agency that may need to inquire our organisation for any reason or suspicion. We have already done so with authorities/agencies that have so required," Goel added.
"I do maintain that we will deliver the most affordable quality products to our customers through our range of smartphones including 'Freedom 251'," Goel added.
Ringing Bells launched the product last month in the presence of veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
It distributed some "prototypes" of the product to the media which turned out to be Adcom handsets. However, the company maintained that the device has been developed "with immense support" from the government.
According to the company, 'Freedom 251' will run on Android 5.1 operating system and will sport a 4-inch qHD IPS display, a 3.2-megapixel primary and a 0.3-megapixel front camera.
However, doubts were raised after assessments of the viability of the handset found that such a device cannot be offered for less than Rs.2,300-2,400.
Ringing Bells had received 30,000 orders on the first day.
The rest of the customers for the first 25 lakh handsets were to be selected on first-come-first-served basis as the company received about seven crore registrations before the payment gateway crashed.
Later, the company decided to return the money to the customers who pre-booked the Rs.251 device on the first day of the sale.
The company said it planned to give 25 lakh handsets in the first phase before June 30.

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Freedom 251: The truth behind this smartphone

The wonder gadget Freedom 251 smartphone has been making waves and stealing the limelight. It is immensely popular not because of its technical specifications but for its extremely low price, which is less than $4. Who knew the world would have smartphones which would cost less than movie tickets or pizzas?


The response to Freedom 251, the brianchild of Noida-based company Ringing Bells, “exceeded expectations” during the pre-booking period. The company was forced to close the pre-booking as the portal could not handle so much traffic and the website crashed.
Much has been written about the booking of the new smartphone, but the truth is that you can’t book it anymore. What’s more, nobody in their right mind would advise you to book it either. The company is in no hurry to deliver the already booked phones, though it says that registrations might open again in a couple of months.


Surprisingly, it seems to be not just a good-for-nothing, dabba phone. You can use Facebook, Whatsapp and Google Play Store. You can also play games on the phone. It will have some pre-installed applications such as Women Safety, Swachh Bharat, etc.
Adding to the list of surprises is the one year warranty that comes with the phone.
The battery and the charger carry a separate warranty of six months, while the earphones come with a three-month warranty.


However, damage, liquid penetration and normal wear and tear will not fall under the purview; neither will plastic parts such as front and back cover, the key pad which is made of rubber, and the antenna. Buyers also forgo the warranty if the device is damaged or attempts are made to repair it by anyone other than authorized personnel.

Freedom 251 price explained why freedom 251 is the world cheapest smartphone how cheap can a smartphone we get?

Monday 29 February 2016

Ringing Bells starts refunding money due to ‘negative speculation’ : Freedom 251

Noida-based Ringing Bells, which has promised to sell smartphones for Rs 251 apiece, has started refunding money to customers due to negative speculation around its claim. “There was a lot of negativity around us so we have decided to take money from customers only after delivering phones to them. We are refunding money to those who have paid for booking the phones and giving them an option of cash on delivery,” Ringing Bells Director Mohit Goel said. 



About 30,000 people paid for booking the phones and over 7 crore people registered for it. The payment was facilitated by CCAvenue and PayU Biz. “We don’t want customers’ money initially. We have investors to back our project. There is a business model to justify the price. We have a foolproof plan and to whomsoever we have disclosed it has agreed to it. I don’t want to disclose full details as of now,” Goel said.


He said the delivery of Freedom251 smartphones is expected to start in April after which the company will start the second round of bookings. “Our payment gateway companies CCAvenue and PayU Biz have sought time till Wednesday to credit back the amount in accounts of all those who have paid. After which we will send an email seeking confirmation for cash on delivery,” Goel said.


Ringing Bells President Ashok Chaddha had explained earlier that the manufacturing cost of the phone is about Rs 2,500, which will be recovered through a series of measures like economies of scale, innovative marketing, reduction in duties and creating an e-commerce marketplace. “By going for Made in India components, we can save on the 13.8 per cent duty. Also, we will be selling online first and thus save the costs incurred on large distribution network,” he said.


Chaddha also rejected speculations of the handset being subsidised by the government. “The phone will be manufactured in Noida and Uttaranchal. Two plants will be set up for Rs 250 crore each with a capacity of 5 lakh phones. The money will come in the form of debt and equity (1.5:1),” he said. Chaddha said the equity is being met by the promoter family of the company that is “engaged in agri-commodities business” in Uttar Pradesh but declined to give 
further information. 


However, people in industry and some politicians expressed doubt over the claim. Telecom Minister asked the Department of Electronics and IT to look in to matter. Ringing Bells has also come under the scanner of Excise and Income Tax Departments as debates around the feasibility of offering a handset for Rs 251 rages on. According to the sources, the I-T Department is looking into the financial structure of the company and has obtained documents, including those from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), in this regard. 

Sunday 21 February 2016

Freedom 251's creator Ringing Bells comes under Government scanner after controversy

After Freedom 251 announcement Ringing Bells's CEO had to take time to answer some of the pressing questions belong to Freedom 251
According to HT Adcom phone used as a demo unit to an attempt to answer the audience question. The Freedom 251 smartphone will have the same specs as  Adcom phone though the external design might differ in the final product.  
No one Know how did Company come up with the pricing in the first place without a clear product plan?

You need to know all controversies before booking the world's cheapest smartphone from freedom251.com

There are some point that Cause some concern about Product

  • Essentially, users who registered to receive the device still don't really know what their device or the software on it will display like.
  • As for the pre-installed software on the phone, the Ringing Bells CEO shared that they've had plans to modify the UI with a custom design of their own anyway.
  • •Another red flag is the fact that the Ringing Bells CEO claims they are a registered Android Partner, although the company is not on the list. They have not submitted a phone for certification within the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) .So how they can sell this product online?
  • In just two days the company has received more than 60 million registrations and has since stopped accepting new ones. Ringing Bells reportedly didn’t anticipate such an interest, and allegedly plans to work on fulfilling the first 30,000 orders and continue with their campaign only after that.
  • So if the Freedom 251 is merely at its early concept level, this all raise the question whether users will receive the promised device at all. It also put a question about the viability of the Ringing Bells business model, and the whole thing is increasingly starting to look like publicity stunt 

10 things we know about world's cheapest smartphone : Freedom 251

Meanwhile Indian companies complained the Telecom Ministry to check the Ringing Bells credentials. The company would certainly come under scrutiny, and the authorities already feel pressure to look more closely into how this unbelievable offer is made possible as current estimates from people in the know suggest the minimum per-unit production costs for a phone in China are no less than $30.


Freedom 251 price explained why freedom 251 is the world cheapest smartphone how cheap can a smartphone we get? 

Whatever the outcome of the government checks may be, one thing is for sure at this stage, the Freedom 251's future is unclear and It's still a concept phone which may not see a market launch anytime soon. 

Friday 19 February 2016

Freedom 251 price explained why freedom 251 is the world cheapest smartphone how cheap can a smartphone we get?

Freedom 251 is a dual-SIM 3G smartphone with a 4-inch IPS touchscreen, 1.3 GHz quad core processor with 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM, with  3.2 MP camera.


After launch Freedom 251 there is understandable excitement across the country over the price 251 by the Ringing Bells smartphone. There is disbelief in the smartphone market and in the rest of the world about its production according to people who are in this business

The cheapest smartphone available in India  is the known Trio Trio Smart Touch Phone Junior 3, priced at Rs 1,449 on Flipkart.That is a 2G phone.


The Freedom 251, on the other hand, is a dual-SIM 3G smartphone with a 4-inch IPS touchscreen, 1.3 GHz quad core processor with 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM, as well as a 3.2 MP camera.

The cheapest phone with specs like Freedom 251 would be the Rs 2,999 Datawind Pocketsurfer 3G, which has a less powerful processor and capacitive touchscreen than this

Unbelievable price

 Rs 251 is hard to digest for most people in the industry. Indian Cellular Association president Pankaj Mohindroo said this “pricing is not possible under any condition  even if the components are made in India”. He said the bill for material for a product like this would be around $ 40.


Sunit Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, too put a similar price point, saying a phone with these specs should cost at least 8x more.

Analyst Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO & Founder at Greyhound Knowledge Group, said the lowest price point seen so far was $ 28, or about Rs 1,700.

Company’s logic Behind  Price


Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha says the price would be achieved by manufacturing in India at facilities the company is setting up in UP and Uttarakhand. The economies of scale would kick in once the company reaches a manufacturing capacity of 5 lakh units a month. 

He also suggests that components would be locally procured, which would help avoid the 13-odd per cent duty on imports.

Experts like Gogia, however, say that even if components are found locally, they are usually more expensive than imported parts. Made in India A lot of the benefits will come when the phone is actually made in India.

How pricing works in manufacturing industries


Phones generally have a bill of material (BoM) cost on top of which comes the manufacturing cost, plus components like taxes and duties, and marketing cost and profits — together making up the final selling price.

In offline sales at least, the dealer has a considerable margin — which is why you see large variations in prices of the same product.
Of late, the trend has been to subsidise this figure to capture markets, especially India.

In the BoM, usually the cellular radio is the costliest — making up about 30% of the cost. With the processor and rest of the circuit, this could go up to 50%. The mechanical parts come next, followed by display, storage/memory and the camera component.

In devices like the Apple iPhone  the display could end up being the costliest component. To give an example, according to US business analysis firm IHS inc


costs for making is around ~$227 to make an iPhone.

And features of Freedom 251 are:

Display:            4.00-inch 

Processor:       1.3GHz

Front Camera: 0.3-megapixel

Resolution:      540x960 pixels

RAM:                1GB

OS:                    Android 5.1

Storage:           8GB

Rear Camera: 3.2-megapixel

Battery capacity: 1450mAh



By this logic, the wireless module of the Freedom 251 should cost around Rs 65, a fourth of the phone’s price. And the display should cost even less.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

How to Access down Websites- Why Freedom 251 website crashed

How to open Freedom251.com and book smartphone online. Is freedom 251 website down or up? When to book freedom 251 online. Tricks to solve the issue for opening the website is here.
smartphone company Ringing bell has declared Freedom 251 which is the cheapest smartphone ever. It cost around $3 to $4 only.
The company announced that they will launch the smartphone on 18 February 2016 at 6:00 am. It was very much expected that many people visit their website. But, visitors crossed the limit from 150 visitors per second to 6 Lakh visitor per second. As website can’t handle that many visitors so, it has crashed. But, still people keep trying checking the crashed website.
Well many people have started claiming this freedom 251 sale similar to other e commerce website sale where online sale product was sold just when they appeared. But they would say keep checking the website.
The company Ringing Bell is trying very hard to get the website back and continue the sale of the smartphone. So, we  would recommend you to stay online as the website can go live anytime. Don’t miss this opportunity and buy this smartphone for 251 INR only.

Tricks to open the freedom251.com down website


Clear the cookies and close the browser and open it again. If you open your browser again and write the website URL in address bar. Then the chance is high to open down  website .This will increase your chances to open website before other user who are trying to book mobile from this site.