The Freedom 251, a $4 smartphone that is named after its price in rupees, will start shipping out of India at the end of this month. 200,000 units will be delivered. The device comes with a 4-inch display carrying a qHD 540 x 960 resolution. A quad-core 1.3GHz CPU is under the hood with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable native storage. An 8MP rear camera adorns the back of the unit, with a 3.2MP front-facing snapper for selfies and video chats. Android 5.1 is pre-installed.
The specs are certainly not a major selling point of the phone, the ridiculously low price is the attraction here. In fact, the company admits that it is taking a loss on each unit sold. You might recall that Amazon was doing the same thing when it first started selling the Kindle Fire tablet. But Amazon was counting on sales of apps, content and cloud based services to turn a profit on the business.
India seems the perfect location to launch such an endeavor. Now the second largest smartphone market in the world, the country's low per capita income of $1,500 assures that budget priced handsets sell the most, In fact, last year 75% of smartphones sold in the country were priced at $150 or lower.
The Freedom 251, priced at $4 in India, starts shipping on June 30th
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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