Indian phone maker Ringing Bells launched a $4 smartphone yesterday, with huge customer demand promptly crashing the little-known company’s website hours after the phone went on sale.
The Freedom 251 was unveiled a day ahead of the launch and is being sold for Rs251 ($3.66) - a price that sceptics said was far lower than what its components would cost.
The smartphone went on sale in the morning but the company later stopped accepting orders after its website crashed. “We humbly submit that we are therefore taking a pause,” it said in an apology to customers.
Ringing Bells, based in the Delhi satellite city of Noida, was set up only last year and the launch event for the new phone on Wednesday night was attended by a senior leader from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.
Company president Ashok Kumar Chadha said the Android smartphone would have pre-installed apps that tie into Modi initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Clean India’.
“Let us see what can we do to bring about a real liberation of Freedom to all our brothers and sisters,” he said in a speech, referring to the name of the new phone to make a play on words.
In its notice to customers the company said it was receiving 600,000 hits per second on its website, although it did not say how many of those hits converted to real orders.
For comparison, Google processes an estimated 40,000 search requests per second.
There was utter chaos at the company’s head office yesterday.
There were also reports of copyright infringements.
The scene at the head office was somewhat chaotic as a crowd of nearly 100 people, including locals, was screaming to be given the smartphone. Some even offered to pay double the price for booking one.
Company officials did not come out and the access points were locked from inside. Despite several attempts, no access was allowed to any company official.
Hundreds of people crowding in front of the office were angry for not being able to get their hands on the cheap handset.
“The smartphone is for farmers and fishermen but how can they expect them to register online? Neither of us has Internet access nor do we know how to operate a computer. We cannot order it online so we are here for a unit or two,” a local resident said.
Another local resident said he was willing to pay double the announced price for the smartphone but complained that no one from the company was paying any heed to him.
Earlier, the photos of the smartphone in newspaper advertisements released by the firm showed that all the icons of the built-in app were almost a replica of Apple’s iOS icons.
According to the information available on Apple website, “You may not use the Apple Logo or any other Apple-owned graphic symbol, logo, or icon on or in connection with websites, products, packaging, manuals, promotional/advertising materials, or for any other purpose except pursuant to an express written trademark license from Apple, such as a reseller agreement.”
Several attempts to speak to senior Ringing Bell executives on this controversy went in vain.
India is Asia’s fastest growing smartphone market with 103.6mn smartphones sold in 2015. Most Indians still buy cheap smartphones that cost less than $200.
Although the company didn’t discuss the economics behind the operation, analysts questioned the business model.
“It looks like it’s highly subsidised by the company and it’s not clear how they plan to sustain this,” said Tarun Pathak, an analyst with Counterpoint Technology Research.
Previous attempts at frugal engineering in India have not been very successful.
In 2008, the government announced a $10 laptop that ended up costing over $100 before it made it to market. A $20 Android tablet sold by local company Datawind through a government subsidy scheme failed to capture significant market share.
First deliveries of the Freedom 251 phone are not expected before the middle of the year, according to Ringing Bells.
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