In 2016, Freedom 251 was announced, and the technology world globally was taken by storm because it offered an Android smartphone that cost less than $4. The company is based in Noida (India). The smartphone has been heavily marketed as the world’s cheapest smartphone, and the device itself is sold by Ringing Bells Private Limited.
How many people have booked Freedom 251? (~70 million)
There is no news about the delivery of the smartphone, over 70 million registered, and Mohit Goel, founder of Ringing Bells, was arrested by police in Delhi, among others. They were arrested multiple times on the counts of fraud, misleading, and fraud schemes.
When was Freedom 251 launched?
February 17, 2016
Let’s know what happened to the cheapest smartphone, which launched with a vision to make 1.3 billion people in India at a lower cost. We all know that people in Southeast Asia are more sensitive than others. They aim to give services and devices to billions of people in India who can’t purchase smartphones.
It started in 2016 when Ringing Bell hosted a media event to announce Freedom 251, and it initially grabbed the hype with a headline about the cheapest smartphone with a price of $4 ($251) around the world. In every media industry, from digital to newspapers, everyone is talking about it, and it has become a global name. Also, the founder claimed that the device would be delivered by the end of February 2016 and that it had received 70 million pre-orders. However, it is also available for Cash on Delivery (the most preferred payment option in the Indian e-commerce space), and that’s not an option to begin with.
Meanwhile, doubt was started, and by the end of 2016, delivery of phones had not started. Then they made an initial promise to deliver 25,00,00 phones before June 30, and it was also not delivered. Then they realize and start with a new thing by pre-booking, and yes! People instantly pre-booked with 30,00,000 Freedom 251. Not to mention, it was not delivered, and people were waiting for the next part of the order. After they couldn’t deliver the smartphone, they returned the pre-booked money to their customers.
Then they announced they would deliver 5,000 units of devices before July 2016 and successfully delivered them; likewise, they were arrested, and there was no more news. This all happened because the launch event was attended by a member of parliament, and people were thinking about whether it could be a part of the India initiative “Digital India,” but the government was clear that it didn’t support Freedom 251, and the founder of Freedom 251 wrote a letter to Narendra Modi to fund ₹50,000 crore for his project.
Who launched Freedom 251?
Ringing Bell, MD. Mohit Goel
On the other hand, the Telecom Ministry, after conducting an internal assessment of the phone, found it could not be offered for less than ₹2,300-₹2,400. Whereas, the company says if it were able to sell 75 crore smartphones, it would then sell these phones at the price of ₹251 and generate profit from its services.
With a small loss for the consumer, all this makes sense, but they also said they were 60% of components locally.
As the device was completely made in India they were looking for more investment of 70–80 crores, to begin with, 25 crores Invested for Freedom 251. while they failed, but His Found said their vendors failed, and now they disappeared, and all we are left with are the tales of multiple legal tangles it entered into. Also, the India Government didn’t support it by giving his company ₹7.4 billion, over 750 million of India’s population would become a part of Digital India.
Is Freedom 251 available now?
NO
Even he said that, if the government helped today, he could still deliver the device by March 2019. Ultimately, the image of India globally has been tarnished and has been pushed with such tall claims. This is nothing more than a scam, and in the end, government support has to be positive to promote innovation, and it is very challenging to decide whether the innovation will be a success or a failure.