Ringing Bells' India-Only Android Phone To Run About $4 (freedom251.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Freedom 251 is the name of a new affordable Android smartphone which is going on sale in India. It features an 4-core 1.3 Ghz Processor, with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory, and runs an Android Lollipop 5.1 distribution complete with civilian and government applications for Indian citizens. It is being heavily subsidized to make up for the benefits that it will bring to the people who could never afford a smartphone before. Ars Technica notes that the phone is apparently not carrier-subsidized, but as Pocket Now points out, "[t]he nation's defence minister will be at the launch event, a sign that the government has heavily subsidized the project in line with its developmental prerogatives."
That is, Freedom for the defense minister to watch all your activity.
India is a very class conscious society. When I visit India I use a cheap Nokia-the-indestructable phone for calls when not connected to wi-fi. My nephews and nieces call it "servant-maid's phone" and would not be seen dead using it. They would rather buy a cheap unreliable knock off that has an apple logo on it, rather than a reliable Nokia. This 251Rs phone will be instantly marked as the servant-maid, rickshaw-puller, veggie-hawker, coster-monger phone and most of middle class will eschew it. That is actually good. The government subsidy will actually reach the poor. If the manufacturer delivers a half decent product at that price after taking all the govt funds.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I saw an android phone on sale for $15 at walmart a few weeks ago, with the non-sale phones bottoming out at $25. On amazon one can find generic phones for $15 all day. So this isn't surprising to me. We will have $5 handsets in a couple years as well.
"It is being heavily subsidized..." .. because the lack of meaningful security in Android will allow the government to spy on millions of unsuspecting people.
PRICELESS
Freeodom 45!!!
It's a subsidized phone, only it's subsidized by the government.
Yea, this will end well... Mounds of debt added to the government's obligations, piles of money into the manufacturer's and carrier's pockets. Ah the value of a good lobbyist is vast indeed. Watch the money folks...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
1. Buy a bunch of these phones
2. Sell them abroad on eBay for $10-15
3. That's really it
4. Profit!
>$150 for Chinaphone
>Android 4.4
>$8 for Indian Phone
>Android 5.1
Fuck mediatek
Now what about providing the 500+ million Indian citizens with basic services, like electricity, running water and sewage? If you want to be regarded as a modern country, it is high time for you to do that. Anyone can have nuclear weapons, if that's what they really want.
Firefox OS phones are supposed to revolutionize the mobile scene using the power of the open web, why don't they use those?
Bridging the digital divide reaching vulnerable populations will help to drive the country out of poverty. India has 900million mobile subscribers and only 300m with smart phones.
Start the countdown to an official Indian Android app store, and further to that store having horrible adware and malware issues.
I wonder how much you could make smuggling them over the border.... You can't even buy a 8GB flash drive for $4 in some places.
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"g to give 80% kickbacks to half a dozen officials."
And *that* reference, which I get, comes from the (long-obsolete) London Life "Freedom 55" retirement plan.
In my country, a Samsung phone with those specs costs USD 110. The Chinese versions are USD 50.