Errymath: Freedom 251

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<span id="ext-gen147" style="font-size: small;">The
 world's cheapest smartphone costing just </span><span id="ext-gen147" style="font-size: small;">$4</span><br />
<span id="ext-gen147" style="font-size: 1.2em;"> </span> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freedom 251, first unveiled in February this year.</td></tr>
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The Freedom 251 device goes on sale on
 June 30 in an attempt to improve internet access for millions of 
people. The manufacturers were forced to refund over 30,000 orders after
 its website crashed earlier this year. <i>dailymail.co.uk</i><br />
<br />
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span id="ext-gen147" style="font-size: 1.2em;">The
 world's cheapest smartphone costing just </span><span id="ext-gen147" style="font-size: 1.2em;">$4 is finally set to begin 
shipping later this week in an attempt to connect poorer regions of 
India.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Aiming
 to make internet access affordable to millions of people across the 
country, the Freedom 251 device goes on sale on June 30 and will only be
 available to pre-registered users in India.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Despite
 briefly being available earlier this year, the manufacturers were 
forced to refund over 30,000 pre-orders and delay shipping after its 
website crashed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Developed
 by Ringing Bells, a technology firm based in Noida, more than 200,000 
devices will be sold during the first phase of delivery. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Customers who registered their interest in the device will pay on arrival of the product, with many certain to miss out.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The gadget comes with a four-inch screen, an 8MP rear camera and 3.2MP front-facing camera.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Users of the phone will have 8GB of storage and 1GB RAM available to them, while a 1.3GHz quad-core processor powers the device.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Running
 on Android Lollipop 5.1, the gadget available in either black or white,
 comes pre-installed with Facebook, YouTube, Google Play and WhatsApp. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">First
 unveiled in February, the firm's website crashed after seven million 
people registered their interest just hours after it was announced.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In a notice to its customers soon after the outage, the company said it was receiving 600,000 hits per second on its website. </span><br />
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">In comparison, Google manages only 40,000 search requests in the same time frame.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The
 firm was forced to withdraw the product from sale and refunded all of 
the  customers who had paid for the device following scrutiny by 
government.</span></div>
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<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sciencetech" id="00774f30-3c53-11e6-ab53-150863acfea4">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h3 class="wocc">
<b>WORLD'S FIRST BENDABLE PHONE</b></h3>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="ins cleared xolcc bdrcc">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The world's first bendable smartphone made using graphene, which was first developed in Britain, is set to go on sale.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Made by a company in China, the device's graphene-based screen is so flexible that it can be worn as a chunky bracelet.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The revolutionary material combines being both extremely thin – one atom - and strong – 200 times stronger than steel.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Graphene
 was first isolated in 2004 by two scientists at The University of 
Manchester, who were subsequently awarded the Nobel prize.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The phone has been created by a little-known start-up company in China called the Moxi Group, which is based in Chongqing.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">It
 seems have stolen a march on much bigger rivals like Samsung of South 
Korea and Apple, who have been working on their own flexible handsets.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Moxi says it will ship 100,000 of the devices for the Chinese market this year at a price that is equivalent to £531 ($776).</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Mohit Goel, CEO of Ringing Bells, told <a class="" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/ringing-bells-freedom-251-delivery-for-2-lakh-units-start-june-30-company-to-launch-cheapest-hd-led-tv-2872719/" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">The Indian Express</a>: 'We learned from our mistakes and decided to go silent until we come out with the product.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Now we have a 4-inch, dual-SIM phone ready for delivery. I feel vindicated.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Let us see what can we do to bring about a real liberation of Freedom to all our brothers and sisters.' </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Once the first phase of delivery is complete, registration will open again for those wishing to buy the handset. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<br /></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The company was only set-up last year, but have already been caught in a number of controversies surrounding the phone.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">A
 patent infringement from Apple regarding some of the built-in app icons
 was filed, while fellow manufacturers Adcom claimed they used their 
devices but masked their logo out. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The firm is hoping to squash claims from critics that it would be impossible to produce a phone so cheaply.</span></div>
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">With
 the manufacturing cost of each phone claimed to be over £40, the firm 
is choosing to use innovative marketing techniques to showcase their 
device.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">And they are hoping for a large volume of sales to help recover costs from production.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The
 Indian Cellular Association (ICA) previously said that a smartphone 
with specifications such as the Freedom 251 device has can not be 
manufactured for that price.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Although the company never discussed the economics behind their operation, analysts questioned the business model.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<br /></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Tarun
 Pathak, an analyst at Counterpoint Technology Research, said: 'It looks
 like it's highly subsidized by the company and it's not clear how they 
plan to sustain this.'</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The
 company is also planning to launch a 32-inch high-definition television
 next month - but not quite as cheap as their smartphones, with a device
 reportedly set to cost £110. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">India
 is Asia's fastest growing smartphone market with 103.6 million 
smartphones sold in 2015. Most Indians still buy cheap smartphones that 
cost less than £150. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Other attempts at cheap engineering in India have not been very successful.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font" id="ext-gen148">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">A
 laptop costing just £7.50 was announced by the Indian government in 
2008, but ended up costing over £75 by the time it reached the market. <i>dailymail</i></span></div>
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The world's cheapest smartphone finally set to begin shipping later this week

The world's cheapest smartphone costing just $4 Freedom 251, first unveiled in February this year. The Freedom 251 ...

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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span id="ext-gen179" style="font-size: 1.2em;">A little-known Indian company has launched the world's cheapest smartphone.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The Freedom 251 is believed to be the  cheapest in the world, targeting a market already dominated by low-cost handsets.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">It costs just 251 rupees, around $3.66, less than one percent of the price of the latest Apple iPhone.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span class="mol-style-bold"><img alt="freedom251" class="img-responsive" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/fdmimages/img_freedom251.jpg" /> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><span class="mol-style-bold"><img alt="freedom" class="img-responsive" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/fdmimages/img_freedom2.jpg" /> </span></span></div>
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<img alt="The Freedom 251 is believed to be the cheapest in the world, targeting a market already dominated by low-cost handsets. It costs just 251 rupees, around $3.66, less than one percent of the price of the latest Apple iPhone. " class="blkBorder img-share" height="458" id="i-ff59fc17b9459773" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/17/19/3151E5BD00000578-0-image-a-1_1455737226113.jpg" width="634" /><div class="share-pictures-overlay" id="share-pictures-1">
  
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The Freedom 251 is believed to be the 
cheapest in the world, targeting a market already dominated by low-cost 
handsets. It costs just 251 rupees, around $3.66, less than one percent 
of the price of the latest Apple iPhone. </div>
</div>
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox sciencetech floatRHS">
<br /></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The device is the latest release from Ringing Bells, a company based in Noida, India. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Its
 mission is 'to provide futuristic technology products of the highest 
quality and best service at the lowest cost of ownership,' according to 
the company's website.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Ringing
 Bells was set up in September 2015 and began selling mobile phones via 
its website a few weeks ago under its Bell brand, a spokeswoman said. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'This is our flagship model and we think it will bring a revolution in the industry,' she told AFP.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Speaking
 at the launch, MP Murli Manohar Joshi praised the phone, and talked 
about the importance, not just of increased digital penetration in 
India, but also of making products in India. 'Unless India innovates and
 makes something new, it cannot progress,' he said according to <a class="" href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/freedom-251-officially-launched-no-government-involvement-confirms-company-803689" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">NDTV</a>.</span></div>
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Because
 if technology is expensive then it's useless. You need technology for 
everyone, for fishermen and farmers and students. But technology that is
 cheap should also still be useable, cheap by itself is not enough.' </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Ringing
 Bells currently imports parts from overseas and assembles them in India
 but plans to make its phones domestically within a year, the 
spokeswoman said.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Cheap
 smartphone handsets, many of them Chinese-made, are readily available 
in the Indian market but domestic competitors are making inroads, with 
models selling for less than $20.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<br /></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Preorders for the Freedom 251 open on February 18 at 6AM and close on February 21 at 8PM from the firm's <a class="" href="http://www.freedom251.com/" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">web </a>site, with 500,000 handsets believed to be available.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">India
 is the world's second-largest mobile market and notched up its 
billionth mobile phone subscriber in October, according to the country's
 telecoms regulator.</span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">But
 in poorer Indian states such as Bihar, 'teledensity' -- the penetration
 of telephone connections for every hundred people -- is as low as 54 
percent, with a stark urban-rural divide. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<br /></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The
 handset has a 4' 960x540 IPS display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB
 of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with a MicroSD slot, a 3.2MP camera on 
the back, a 0.3MP one on the front, and a 1450mAh battery. </span></div>
<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The phone runs Android 5.1 and has 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.</span></div>
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<img alt="Ashok Chadha (2-R), President of Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd., along with unidentified Ringing Bells official shows the 'Freedom 251' smartphone after its launch in New Delhi." class="blkBorder img-share" height="431" id="i-d6fa36c351084f47" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/17/19/3152590B00000578-0-image-a-2_1455737238926.jpg" width="634" /><div class="share-pictures-overlay" id="share-pictures-2">
  
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Ashok Chadha (2-R), President of 
Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd., along with unidentified Ringing Bells official 
shows the 'Freedom 251' smartphone after its launch in New Delhi.</div>
</div>
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<div class="mol-para-with-font">
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><img alt="freedom" class="img-responsive" src="https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/fdmimages/img_freedom.jpg" /> </span></div>
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  <span>Read more:</span>
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<li><a class="js-tl" href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/freedom-251-officially-launched-no-government-involvement-confirms-company-803689" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freedom 251 Officially Launched; No Government Involvement, Confirms Company | NDTV Gadgets360.com</a></li>
<li id="ext-gen180"><a class="js-tl" href="http://www.freedom251.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freedom 251 india first most affordable smartphone by ringing bells.</a></li>
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The world's cheapest smartphone: $3.66 Freedom 251 4inch Android handset revealed in India

A little-known Indian company has launched the world's cheapest smartphone. The Freedom 251 is believed to be the cheapest i...

Errymath

The world's cheapest smartphone finally set to begin shipping later this week

The world's cheapest smartphone: $3.66 Freedom 251 4inch Android handset revealed in India

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