Freedom 251 Maker Starts Delivery of 65,000 Units to Customers

• The Freedom 251 smartphone is priced at Rs 251
• Second dispatch includes 65,000 customers
• Over 7 crore customers registered for the Freedom 251

After the initial dispatch of 5,000 units, Indian company Ringing Bells on Monday announced it has started deliveries of 65,000 more Freedom 251 smartphone units across many states in India. These include West Bengal, Haryana, Himachal, Bihar, Uttarakhand, New Delhi, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
For those unaware, Ringing Bells announced the Freedom 251 smartphone in February this year, with a shocking price tag of Rs. 251. With that unbelievable price tag, the smartphone received as many as 7 crore registrations.
After much delay, the company managed to dispatch the first batch of 5,000 units last month. The only mode of payment is cash on delivery, and therefore it collects Rs.251 (plus delivery charges of Rs. 40) only once the smartphone is delivered. With the latest batch of 65,000 units, makes the total shipment figures go up to 70,000.
“We started the process of lottery few days back, and now we are dispatching the units to the people. We are elated with the response that we have got for the delivered units. It gives us immense pleasure when we see the satisfied reactions of people who got more than they wished for in terms of quality of our low-cost product,” the company spokesperson said.
The Freedom 251 budget Android smartphone touts a quad-core processor, a 4-inch display, apart from front and back cameras. The company looks to ship the Freedom 251 smartphone to 200,000 registered users at least, and then chalk out the roadmap for further production.
At an event last month, Ringing Bells announced two new budget Android smartphones – Ringing Bells Elegance and Ringing Bells Elegant – as well as four new feature phones, three power banks, and a 31.5-inch HD LED TV.

Source: http://thinkur.com/freedom-251-maker-starts-delivery-of-65000-units-to-customers/

Freedom 251 Delivery Started, Claims Ringing Bells

• Ringing Bells says deliveries began on Friday in 5 states
• First batch includes only 5,000 customers
• Over 7 crore customers registered for the Freedom 251

Ringing Bells, the Noida-based company that courted controversy after announcing a phone at an astonishingly low price of Rs. 251 five months back, on Friday claimed it has begun delivery of the world’s cheapest smartphone in five states including Haryana, West Bengal, and Bihar.
“Of the 5,000 units of Freedom 251 phones that we committed to deliver in the first phase, we have started the delivery of 2,240 phones today through distributors and couriers,” Ringing Bells Director Mohit Goel told PTI.
This includes 390 phones in Haryana, 540 phones in West Bengal, 605 phones in Himachal Pradesh, 484 in Bihar and 221 phones in Uttarakhand.
Goel further said the company will initiate tomorrow the delivery of 2,000 more smartphones. Of this lot, 223 phones will go to consumers in Delhi, 364 phones in Punjab, 108 in J&K, 521 in Maharashtra, 194 in Madhya Pradesh, 225 in Jharkhand and 365 in Rajasthan.
“The balance 760 phones are going to be delivered in UP on Monday (July 11) across five areas including Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, among others,” Goel said.
For the Freedom 251 smartphone, buyers will have to shell out Rs. 291, including Rs. 40 as the delivery charge.
Once the delivery in UP kicks off on July 11, Goel claimed that the company would start working on plans for delivery of the next lot of 2,00,000 smartphones.
“The parts have already arrived at the factory,” he pointed out.
In February, the company announced the Freedom 251 phone which saw a mad rush of over 7 crore people jostling to register, but when the prototype was presented to media it turned out to be produced by another manufacturer with its logo covered.
This led to protests from buyers and consequent inquiries by police and tax officials, forcing the company to stop sale of the product and offer refunds to those who had booked the phone.
The Freedom 251 prototype touts a quad-core processor, a 4-inch screen and front and back cameras, priced at an astonishingly low price of Rs. 251.
On Thursday, the company unveiled new more-expensive smartphone models as well as an LED TV priced at Rs. 9,990.