$4 Smartphone To Start Shipping Next Week

Megalith

Megalith

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This smartphone not only costs $4, but it can, presumably, even turn on and make calls. Ringing Bells managed to offset part of the cost with pre-installed apps, but each unit will still see a loss of 140 to 150 rupees (around $2).

After raising eyebrows around the world earlier this year, Indian smartphone company Ringing Bells has announced that it will begin shipping its suspiciously cheap Freedom 251 phone from June 30. The announcement follows its earlier commitment of shipping the Freedom 251, a 4-inch entry level Android-powered smartphone priced at 251 rupees (roughly $3.70, £2.70, AU$5), by the end of June. Ringing Bells has over 200,000 units of Freedom 251 ready for shipment, said the company's founder and CEO Mohit Goel in an interview with IANS.
 
The ultimate in burner phone technology. Shipping costs more than phone. I will take a 6 pack if they actually make calls.
 
While all the parts are probably mediocre, it seems fairly usable from specs:

Android v5.1 (Lollipop)
Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor
4.0" (540 x 960 pixels, 275 ppi) display
8 GB flash, microSD expandable to 32GB
1GB RAM
3.2 MP primary camera with LED flash, secondary VGA camera
GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G
microUSB v2.0 connectivity.
1450 mAh Li-Ion Battery
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DrLobotomy said:
The ultimate in burner phone technology. Shipping costs more than phone. I will take a 6 pack if they actually make calls.
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The packaging would probably cost the company more than $4. What shenanigans are being played here? Do you have to pay for each phone call?
 
Waiting for XXXXXX to come proclaim the newest iPhone killer. And how it can replace his fortune 500 datacenter, unlike an iPhone with it's overbearing OS.

I don't want to put the members name (I don't know if that would be considered an attack), but it someone who has said over and over again about how a certain $25 cellphone is better then an iPhone in every way.....so $4 should be even more of a slamdunk!
 
westrock2000 said:
Waiting for XXXXXX to come proclaim the newest iPhone killer. And how it can replace his fortune 500 datacenter, unlike an iPhone with it's overbearing OS.

I don't want to put the members name (I don't know if that would be considered an attack), but it someone who has said over and over again about how a certain $25 cellphone is better then an iPhone in every way.....so $4 should be even more of a slamdunk!
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Oh, they're not competing with Apple. Article says they have 200,000 units ready for shipping. Apple sells over 500,000 iPhones daily.
 
evilsofa said:
Oh, they're not competing with Apple. Article says they have 200,000 units ready for shipping. Apple sells over 500,000 iPhones daily.
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I saw a commerical a couple weeks ago that was something of the effect

"2 Billion in the world don't have access to a bank. But with online tools and cellphone, anywhere you can have a cell phone, you can have a bank"

And I thought, oh that's just great, lets get the whole world indebted. What could go wrong?? You don't need a bank for commerce, but they do make debt a lot easier.

I wish I could find it, but I have no idea who it was for.
 
Given the preinstalled apps they talk about to offset the costs, my bet is a lot of adware and other snooping software to make up for the low cost in return for customer data. Most people won't find a way around it but a small percentage might get by if the dev community finds a why to clean install android on it.
 
westrock2000, I think you may be missing a huge segment of the market--small business loans. Sure, banks can be slow, bureaucratic, etc, but they also can facilitate a great deal of commerce.

$4? I wonder how fast it'll be rooted and Cyanogenmod ported to it. Or, at least a bloat-free ROM.
 
i could really see these selling big to folks who want to give their kids one to mess around on. Im talking small children, with learning games, AAA title touchscreen games, music, movies. There is definitely a market for it. And being so cheap, mom and dad wont feel so bad if its broken, or lost/stolen. Id give one to the kids, no service sim in,use wifi in public places and simply game/music/movie.
 
I'm not sure which is more impressive, the price, or that they think it can be profitable. If they can make it profitable, all power to them!!!
 
$2 for a quad core 1.3ghz android 5.1
What could they offer for $100?
 
BloodyIron said:
I'm not sure which is more impressive, the price, or that they think it can be profitable. If they can make it profitable, all power to them!!!
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They aren't expecting it to be profitable. Clearly says they are losing money on each sale. Maybe they want to show you what's possible and that you do not need to spend $1050 on a new phone.
 
rat said:
The same at cost instead of at a loss.
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If you read the article, you will see they are only selling at a $2 loss, not a $96 loss.

The chip set maker is unknown, so while it might be a quad-core 1.3Ghz etc, this will probably be no where close to anything people are use to. However, even with shitty build etc, $4 is ungodly cheap, and they plan on making money back with income from installed apps, if these are ad like we will have to wait and see, but someone would probably figure out a way to root and put a new ROM on the thing. Why they don't sell it at $10 and make money I am not sure, I would assume its because of its home market target which could not afford it, rather than people in America that would just be using it as a burner or something to take to the beach/trips as a throw away or backup.

It seems the company is also seeking subsidy from the Indian government for the phone as well. However, if the prices and losses are real, that is quite amazing, as the feature set is quite good, when the big names have been claiming that these same features cost to much to add or keep in a phone, such as dual sims and SD card slots etc, showing that these things really don't cost that much. Sure, we have known Apple makes pretty large margins on its HW and iPhones along with others in the market. Some of the windows phones got close to this, not $4, but $20-50 were pretty common, and actually worked pretty well, long battery life and quite snappy OS.
 
BlueFireIce said:
If you read the article, you will see they are only selling at a $2 loss, not a $96 loss.
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$2 loss after subsidy from preinstalled apps and who knows what else. This still doesn't mean it only costs them $6 to manufacture. The company selling this phone sent out samples to reviewers with white out covering the "Adcom" logo. It's pretty obvious they're just using the publicity buzz of a "OMG it's only $4!" as an advertising expense to cover the loss.
 
rat said:
$2 loss after subsidy from preinstalled apps and who knows what else. This still doesn't mean it only costs them $6 to manufacture. The company selling this phone sent out samples to reviewers with white out covering the "Adcom" logo. It's pretty obvious they're just using the publicity buzz of a "OMG it's only $4!" as an advertising expense to cover the loss.
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I'm sure they'll make whatever loss there is back with their spyware and advertising.
 
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rat said:
$2 loss after subsidy from preinstalled apps and who knows what else. This still doesn't mean it only costs them $6 to manufacture. The company selling this phone sent out samples to reviewers with white out covering the "Adcom" logo. It's pretty obvious they're just using the publicity buzz of a "OMG it's only $4!" as an advertising expense to cover the loss.
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I didn't say anything about actual cost, only loss. The amount from preinstalled apps will not be much either, no company is going to pay that much for it, no less for the market this is for, where most people will probably not pay for apps or in app purchase. They will be looking at data mining etc. The phone sent out to reviewers I do not think was the actual phone, which is why I said depending on how the phone is made and actual costs, that with its feature set (claimed) is quite amazing. That is assuming it comes close to those devices reviewed.
 
Term-X said:
Given the preinstalled apps they talk about to offset the costs, my bet is a lot of adware and other snooping software to make up for the low cost in return for customer data. Most people won't find a way around it but a small percentage might get by if the dev community finds a why to clean install android on it.
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That's what I'm hoping for. And you know people will.
 
DukenukemX said:
That's what I'm hoping for. And you know people will.
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Even if they don't, it has GPS, installing Here maps, loaded for offline, no data connection, that's an amazingly cheap personal/car GPS.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Even if they don't, it has GPS, installing Here maps, loaded for offline, no data connection, that's an amazingly cheap personal/car GPS.
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You would probably do better to buy a prepaid Moto E for $30... given that it's known hardware from a known brand and there is plenty of ROM support for it if you wanted to go that route. Bought two of them in a Sprint Prepaid box and they were bootloader unlockable right out of the box, no exploits. They're designed to be rugged, not dirt cheap.
 
dangerouseddy said:
there must be large swaths of the world were there's no mobile/cell phone infrastructure.
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Actually, cell phone towers are now about the FIRST infrastructure that goes in anywhere. They cover large areas with minimal footprint and minimal construction. Compare this to water, sewer, power, and telephone/coax/fiber, which require poles all over the place and/or lots of trenching and burying. Also, a cell phone tower is easier to secure against vandalism.
 
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