Low priced Freedom 251 - Pros and Cons

Low priced Freedom 251 – Pros and Cons

Introduction:

Freedom 251 created quite a stir when the local Noida based company Ringing Bells announced online booking of smartphones at just Rs. 251. What followed by a huge traffic of people eager to grab this phone was a crashed website. Did they anticipate this in advance?

Few years back, there was a similar rush for cheap tablets for students at merely Rs. 1500. That one did go well for quite some time until the company realized that it wouldn’t pay them anything at all. Ringing Bells did not take the clue or hear the warning bells.

We already know that China tops in the making of low priced smartphones followed by other local brands but none of these have thought of making smartphones and that too well featured ones at such an affordable price. While on one side this could be a bolt from blue for other smartphone brands, the Make in India campaign could get a good boost from this.

Pros:

1. Affordable to all: If such cheap smartphones are really made available, very soon the entire population of India will be able to afford one. Not everyone is capable of affording a phone priced above their daily wage but when smartphones are available at the current price of Freedom 251, everyone will be able to get one. Connectivity helps people reach out to each other and to opportunities. A well featured phone would mean more and more people opening up to knowledge and education.

2. Boost to Make in India campaign: We were lagging behind in the making of smartphones in our country. We either relied on big tech giants or the local ones like Micromax. While big brands offered reliable quality, they are priced higher than affordability of poor and lower middle class. Micromax tried to cut the prices with their own launches but failed miserably in quality and battery life. Other brands at lower price only come from China. If the likes of Freedom 251 succeed in catering to the needs of Indian market at such a low price, it would be the biggest boost to ‘Make in India’ initiative. Chinese phones will at least get dominated with our own home-brand.

3. Good features: The smartphone is also gaining a lot of popularity for its excellent features at such a low price. The phone promises a 4 inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory, a 3.2 MP camera and 1450 mAh battery life. It is a 3G phone that supports WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and runs on Android 5.1. It also comes with a warranty of 1 year and has some pre-installed apps like Women Safety, Swachh Bharat, Farmer, Fisherman, Medical, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

4. Connecting India: If the next billion people of India can now have smartphones that can connect well, it may as well be expected that in a few years, everyone will be on internet, knowing and learning things that they never had access to. We could even expect telecom providers to launch affordable internet in days to come. It is a good step towards development if everyone can have access to smartphone and internet. It is very important that our locals come out of their zone and experience world class opportunities for their businesses.

5. Flagship and credibility: It all looked fake when the news flashed for such a cheap phone but the flagship of ‘Make in India’ initiative and association of big political names during the promotion and launch has brought high hopes for everyone. It is believed that unlike other cheap phones and tablets, this one will live up to the expectations of people.

Cons:

1. Drawback to other brands: The sale of other brand’s smartphones will suffer largely if one particular phone with good features is available at such a low price. Low end phones of other Chinese brands will be down from Indian market in no time, affecting the sales of our local dealers who have stocked those phones in advance. There will be major chaos and objections from other brands if this phone hits the Indian market with good reviews from customers.

2. Copyright infringed: The built-in apps of the smartphone have copied the icons of Apple’s iPhone. The web browser app of this phone is also said to be a swindle of Apple’s Safari browser that are solely reserved for their own brand. This could land them in a major case of copyright infringement from the tech giant, Apple. A smartphone brand bearing the flagship of Indian government’s big initiative should not have this kind of ill-reputation.

3. Fake identity: Another drawback of this smartphone for its association with Make in India is its fraudulence of identity. It is said to be bearing the logo of Adcom concealed with a whitener. When investigated from the Delhi based brand, Adcom that sold its phone for around Rs. 4000, totally denied knowing anything about the utilization of its market by the new brand. Now they will be further investigating the matter only to land Ringing Bells in trouble.

4. Site crashed: If the seller was intending to offer well featured smartphone at such a low price, they should have been prepared for the huge flow of traffic to their official website as soon as bookings start. How could they not be expecting huge traffic and ignore the capability of their website if they are to be selling low end phones to the Indian market? It is only pre-booking that the company is unable to handle which makes their credibility of delivering extremely questionable.

5. What would the million people do with a smartphone? I don’t mean to be absurd but the majority of our population does not want a smartphone at this point of time. Yes, they want good governance, cheap pricing of food and oil, law and order and affordable reliable internet connectivity. What are we expecting poor people to do with a smartphone when they cannot connect to internet? This is not going to impress them if that is what ministers expected when they wholeheartedly supported the dubious low end phone.

Conclusion:

The freedom 251 smartphone is in its pre booking state. Until it reaches out to people (which won’t be anytime sooner than June) we can only make assumptions of its credibility. We expect that the brand stands up to the expectations and the name of the initiative attached to its back.

Meanwhile, Ringing Bells should think about being free from any charges of infringement from Apple and Adcom. They must also apply for BIS certification which is mandatory for selling phones in India.