Freedom 251 smartphone: Is this the T-series moment of the smartphone industry?

Ringing Bells , founded last year, came out with a front and back cover ad of their new smartphone Freedom 251 in a leading English daily. The ridiculously cheap smartphone is available for pre bookings online on the company’s website – between 6am on February 18 and at 8pm on February 21. It promises to deliver the products by June 21st. Back in the days, when the son of a fruit-juice vendor started selling pirated records and cheap audio cassettes, none would have believed that one day he would turn India’s music industry on its head. Gulshan Kumar’s Super Cassettes operated out of Noida and started selling the music cassettes with a decent quality at a ridiculously low price. Five decades on, another Noida based company is trying to change an industry on its head – this time it is the smartphone industry. Firstpost sent out its video team to ask Mumbai what it thinks of the new device. Opinion ranged from disbelief to delight. The opinion in the newsroom was different, though. Firstpost talked to people in the newsroom as to what they think about a phone that costs Rs 251 and offers almost everything a regular smartphone could boast of. We asked the newsroom guys one simple question: So is this the T-series moment of the smartphone industry? Here’s what we got:

Renil Abraham said, “I don’t think this will become the T-series moment of the smartphone industry. It is really cheap, so a lot of people might buy it. But in terms of quality, I doubt its credibility. I need good quality and I am huge Apple fan.” Shreedhar Kunte echoed Renil. “No, I don’t think so. It is likely to go in the Aakash (tablet) way. I am keen to see how it goes. I am willing to spend more than 250 bucks. No, it’s not the question of status, I am already having enough phones. I don’t want to spend 250 bucks more to get something, which may not work.” Zenia D’cunha also had her share of doubt about the product when asked if she would buy it. “Hopefully if it lasts like more than 250 days, it depends on that,” she said. But she too won’t buy Freedom 251. India’s “most affordable smartphone” is largely seen as a phone for the tier 2 or tier 3 cities. Apparently, the Firstpost newsroom is not the target audience of the mobile company, which has around 200 dealers across eight states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, push their products and provide services for the same. “Probably in 3-tier, 2-tier cities where people are still using dumb phones, they can replace that. People who are using phones of Rs 1000 or 2,000 they will use it. But, people who are already using iPhones, why will they go with this phone?” summed up Sanjeet Kumar