
More on India’s $4 Phone - jwildeboer
http://openattitude.com/2016/02/19/more-on-indias-4-phone/
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sremani
Here is the money at stake

>>> "The phone will be manufactured in Noida and Uttaranchal. Two plants will
be set up for Rs 250 crore (appx. 37 million USD) each with a capacity of 5
lakh phones. The money will come in the form of debt and equity (1.5:1)," he
said. <<<

Murali Manohar Joshi who used to be a top tier leader of the current ruling
BJP attended the ceremony. So, this scam has deep collaborators.

[http://zeenews.india.com/business/gadgets/gadgets-
news/freed...](http://zeenews.india.com/business/gadgets/gadgets-
news/freedom-251-online-booking-for-rs-251-smartphone-to-resume-
today_1857010.html)

~~~
1024core
> who used to be a top tier leader of the current ruling BJP attended the
> ceremony.

With enough grease in the palm, any politician can be made to appear.

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seshagiric
More of a fiasco than a scam. Somewhat like Aakash tablets (they created a
buzz for sub 100$ tablet 4-5 years back). What is likely going to happen is
very few (if any) customers will actually get the 4$ phones. The website will
never show phones in stock. After all the buzz, they may eventually come up
with a more realistic 40-50$ phone.

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viral007
Could this be a marketing stunt for "Make In India"?

~~~
sremani
This is more like a using the state for eminent domain/land acquisition for a
factory and collect perks and subsidies from government while getting debt
from Public sector banks and at a later date cashing the real estate and
dumping the factories etc on the Banks while making lot of cash.

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pratikch
I think the whole marketing time forgot to put a '0' and now they have
marketing stunt to cash in on excitement of people. :)

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ck2
BBC had a report on it yesterday that I posted but no traction.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11126398](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11126398)

The worst part is government officials are endorsing the phone?

It is someone just trying to raise funds via preorders to try to get one made,
like some kind of kickstarter and the press just ran with it?

~~~
vain
that government official in the story is murli manohar joshi. he does not know
his elbow from his posterior.

Joshi is an entitled superstitious hindu fanatic
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yND74tSqlBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yND74tSqlBA)
If he endorses the product, it is probably a scam

~~~
1024core
> Joshi is an entitled superstitious hindu fanatic

By that same standard, every Republican presidential candidate is a "Christian
fanatic", but nobody uses that term for the Republicans.

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CapitalistCartr
You can have a cheap phone, or one made solely in your country. You can't have
both.

~~~
indians_pro
unless ur chinese

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newsignup
OS is supposed to be android and the browser is like safari? What!

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wodenokoto
I thought we all agreed to assume it was government subsidized.

~~~
jwildeboer
Well, the company behind the Freedom 251 says it isn't subsidised and they use
"economics of scale". Sounds legit ;-)

"No telecom carriers have come forward to announce their partnership with
Ringing Bells, so a carrier-based subsidy is off the charts.

Government subsidy was ruled out by the company at the launch event. As
reported by NDTV Gadgets who were present at the launch event, Ringing Bells
President Ashok Chadha confirmed that there is ‘no government subsidy’ for the
Freedom 251"

Source: [http://www.xda-developers.com/freedom-251-why-it-
is-a-3-7-an...](http://www.xda-developers.com/freedom-251-why-it-
is-a-3-7-android-smartphone-and-why-it-shouldnt-exist/)

~~~
cpcallen
> Well, the company behind the Freedom 251 says it isn't subsidised and they
> use "economics of scale". Sounds legit ;-)

They might be losing money on every sale, but they'll make it up on volume...

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nwah1
Does the coltan come from India?

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titomc
Notify TRAI ?

