'World's cheapest smartphone' to be launched in India

Set to be priced at under INR500, is about one per cent of the price of the latest Apple iPhone

NEW DELHI: A little-known Indian company will on Wednesday launch a smartphone believed to be the cheapest in the world, targeting a market already dominated by low-cost handsets.

Set to be priced at under INR500, domestic handset maker Ringing Bells' Freedom 251 smartphone is about one per cent of the price of the latest Apple iPhone.

Here’s an exclusive first look at Freedom 251, the Rs. 251 smartphone that’s making the headlines today. #Freedom251 pic.twitter.com/z2nN67H9yx

— Gadgets 360 (@Gadgets360) February 17, 2016

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 spokesperson said.

"This is our flagship model and we think it will bring a revolution in the industry," she told AFP.

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Ringing Bells currently imports parts from overseas and assembles them in India but plans to make its phones domestically within a year, the spokesperson said.

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.

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.



But in poorer Indian states such as Bihar, "teledensity" - the penetration of telephone connections for every hundred people - is as low as 54 per cent, with a stark urban-rural divide.