World’s cheapest smartphone priced at Rs 251 to hit Indian market today

NEW DELHI: Noida-based Ringing Bells is all set to launch the world’s cheapest 3G smartphone at just Rs 251(less than $4) in India, in a move to disrupt the surging smartphone market in India, which recently became the world’s second largest market after China, surpassing the US.

The country is already seeing the average selling price of smartphones dropping down month over month due to intense competition among domestic and Chinese handset players. The introduction of this ultra affordable smartphone will further catalyze the market, and will help bring millions of Indians online.

The Freedom 251 will be officially unveiled in New Delhi on Wednesday evening at an event that will be presided over by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, MP, with the Union Defence Minister Sri Manohar Parrikar as the Chief Guest.

Booking for this smartphone starts tomorrow at 6:00AM, and the window will be open till February 21, 8:00PM.

According to the company website, the device features 4-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (expandable up to 32GB), 3.2-megapixel back camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, and a 1450mAh battery.

The company said that the Freedom 251 smartphone has been developed 'with immense support' from the government and is touting it as a success story of PM Modi's flagship ' Make in India' scheme.

At present, smartphones available in the market are priced around Rs 1,500. Last year, DataWind had announced that it is teaming up with Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCOM) to launch the world's most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs 999. The phone is yet to hit the market.

Established last year, Ringing Bells will start with the assembly of handsets in Phase-I and aims at full indigenous development of the feature-rich smartphones. It did not disclose any other details about manufacturing, products and pricing.

A new entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, Ringing Bells had launched one of India's cheapest 4G smartphone at Rs 2,999, recently. It has launched two other feature phones in the market.