Freedom 251: Our call to 65,000 Ringing Bells customers

A lot’s happened since Ringing Bells caught popular attention by launching a smartphone for Rs 251. Yes, the Freedom 251 for Rs 251. Many, including authorities, called it a scam . Even I felt it was nothing less than a tricky scam. Till I saw images of the phone, the finished product out there online. Now while, the manufacturing cost and the retail price of the device somehow don’t match, I’m still skeptical. But if a company gives word that it will make a device available for a specific price, and manages to do that, then in my opinion that is commendable. But for me, that’s where the story begins. I’ve been tracking Freedom 251 since its early days. Not entirely by choice, but due to consumer mania. To begin with, I didn’t quite believe it. Or believe in it. What I do know is that whenever I felt the end was near, I was proven wrong. The company held an event last month in New Delhi and announced a slew of products including television sets . It also took the opportunity to confirm that the Freedom 251 is real. My colleague even saw it up close and was impressed with the device. Given that it is priced at Rs 251 makes it unbelievable. In fact, it’s a good deal at even 10 times the price. In an announcement **yesterday** , Ringing Bells claimed that it has begun shipping the device to about 65,000 people who had booked them. In my opinion, that’s good news. What I fail to understand though, the drop in interest. I expected users to erupt in joy with their new Freedom 251 smartphones. But as much as I tried, that didn’t seem to happen. That was **early July** . This is early August now. Even the unorganised logistical players manage to deliver products within a month. Run a quick search on social networks and you’d find that most conversations since June have been queries about receiving the device. Many have asked for their first impressions of the device, and not a soul has responded. I find that eerily fishy. Given the illogical surge of interest at the time of announcement, the absolute silence at a time when the device is supposed to be a reality is a bit awkward. https://twitter.com/Ranjan_Nayak/status/759686632626728960 We’ve tried our best to reach out to users who in all enthusiasm placed an order for the Freedom 251. Other than technology journalists and writers in the relevant space, we haven’t been able to find anyone who has received the device. We are however, hopeful, and would like to hear from the larger sample size of 65000 users. We would want to hear of their experience with the device, their experience in placing the order for the device. If you are one of the many who ordered a Freedom 251 device, we would urge you to share comments with us on Facebook and Twitter.