Rs 251 can buy you many things, but a Noida-based company that popped out of nowhere is giving you a smartphone – Freedom 251.
How this phone was launched and advertised throughout India is nothing short of hilarious.
Here are some reasons not to fall for the Freedom 251 phenomenon.
1. What’s Ringing Bell?
Ringing Bells is a company that was formed in 2015. The credentials of the promoters are rather vague. The Goel family has been in the agri-commodities business for a couple of decades now. This leaves one to wonder where the sudden interest in technology came from. It’s hard to even trace what their agri-commodities business is named.
2. Freedom 251 is a Rip-Off
Freedom 251 is a rip-off of the already existing Adcom Ikon 4 smartphone that’s selling on a popular e-commerce website in India. The company even went ahead with the launch event without actually having the phones. The one’s available at the event were only with their executives and were very reluctantly shown to the media.
People who got their hands on the phone saw how it was just a rebranded Adcom smartphone that retails at Rs 4,081.
3. What Economies of Scale?!
A company rep claims that the phone actual costs Rs 2,500. With duty subsidies of 13.8 percent, the cost is cut by Rs 500.
The company also forgoes third party distributors for an ‘online sales only’ model, which saves another Rs 480.
Thereafter, what covers that cost according to the company is ‘economies of scale’. They plan to make 5 lakh units per month and flood the market with the phone and attain 30 percent market share. They say that will reduce additional cost by Rs 500.
All thet permutation and combination still leaves a balance of Rs 1,020 to make the phone.
So who’s paying the difference?
4. Logistics?
E-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon are yet to figure out an effective way of getting their logistics in place to deliver goods effectively. Ringing Bell has just one sub-website which has crashed several times after plans to ship 5 lakh units a month with an additional Rs 40 by way of delivery charges.
Right now you can only book the phone online and the date of delivery is 4 months away.
That’s a lot of time for the company to hold your money and move it around in the market and make profits or move out. It’s a matter of Rs 251 and not many people will pursue the company if they do not deliver.
5. Freedom 251 Vs Apple iPhone
In an article in Hindustan Times, most built-in app icons on the Freedom 251 are a direct copy of icons on Apple’s iPhone. It’s a cheap trick to loop in buyers. But if Apple thinks about pressing charges, Ringing Bells will be in a lot of trouble.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)