Twitterati troll Rs 251 smartphone, question manufacturer

Series of pictures tweeted showing phone made by Adcom

With buyers waking up early Thursday to utter chaos at the online sales of Ringing Bells’ Rs 251 smartphone Freedom 251, it wasn’t long before the company came under fire from gadget reviewers and tech journalists.

In the vanguard was Vishal Mathur's tweet, which sought to ‘expose’ the "reality of Rs 251 phone". Mathur tweeted a series of pictures which showed the Freedom251 phone to have been made by ADCOM, whose logo was hidden under a layer of what seemed like correction fluid. 
NDTV gadget guru Rajiv Makhni too had a similar experience to share. Makhni also went on to raise a series of questions against Freedom251, the first one being on everybody's mind: Meanwhile, Twitterati are having a field day trolling Ringing Bells. There were others, too, who had raised concerns even before the phone was launched.  
 

The Indian Cellualar Association (ICA) has written to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying the price of the Freedom 251 smartphone could not be below Rs 3,500 even after subsidies. The ICA has expressed its concerns over what is being called 'India's most affordable smartphone', saying that it is not appropriate for the senior political and government leadership to be present at the launch till the air around the pricing is cleared.  

In the letter, ICA national president Pankaj Mohindroo wrote "The bill of material (BOM) value for a product like this when sourced from the cheapest supply chain cost approximately USD 40 (Rs 2,700). And this, when translated into retail price after addition of applicable duties, taxes and with distribution and retail margins would be at least Rs 4,100 while the product is being sold at Rs 251."

He pointed out that even if the product is sold at lower margins in an e-commerce type subsidised sale, the final consumer price cannot come below $52-55 (about Rs.3,500-3,800).  

The lack of any visible mobile operator subsidy involved in the launch either has been flagged by Mohindroo.