India's $7 Smartphone Set to Disrupt World's Third Largest Mobile Market

[Taz Mangus]

I am sad that I made you sad.
I will give up peeing off the deck for the rest of Lent.

I never said you made me sad. Reading comprehension isn't your strong suite.

 

[Gav2k]

In all fairness for the money it's a decent phone

 

[opeter]

You are right, but what your implying is really ridiculous. Ofcourse there are more people in the country who can afford to spend 251 rupees on a phone than those who can afford toilets.
The people who can't afford toilets generally can't afford a house and would not be able to buy a mobile phone even if it costs 100 rupees.
Also both are different realities. Actually there are many people who have a phone but don't even own a house and use public toilets many a times. Because it takes more than even 500 rupees(the cost of a chinese phone) to make a toilet and it takes more than the cost of a mid range phone to build a toilet. because it needs land in some places its costlier than an Iphone to build a toilet.

So stop this nonsense you seem like a Modi Hater don't get politics into this. Atleast this govt has built more toilets than any other govt in the past and in the next few years everyone will have access to toilets. THEY DON"T EVEN HAVE TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT! Modi is giving it to them for free. JEEZ!!

Many of you have misunderstood me.

Have access ≠ Afford

The toilet can be public, etc. The same goes for clear water.

 

[Taz Mangus]

For reference, here's their $44 smartphone:

View attachment 616830

• 1.3 GHz quad core CPU running Android Lollipop
• 1GB RAM, 8GB FLASH with slot to add 32GB card
• 5" IPS display 960x480
• 8 MP rear camera w/flash, 3.2 MP front
• Wifi, BT, GPS, motion sensors
• GSM / HSPA / LTE
• 2800 mAh battery

Everything electronic drops in price over time. Remember $1000 microwaves, digital cameras, CD and DVD players? Now they can be had for $44, too.

Still, $7 would be really inexpensive. Yet it would not be surprising if it had some specs better than the first iPhone nine years ago. E.g. at least 3G.

And I can see these extremely cheap phones creating a new problem, landfill waste. Is there going to be a resale market for these phones. New model comes out the next year, simply dispose (literally) of the old phone and buy a new one. Are these companies that are producing these phones sponsoring recycling programs for the old phones. Great, they have a really cheap phone now what about the environmental responsibility. But, hey let's focus on specs and how they might compare to the iPhone introduced 9 years ago.

 

[kdarling]

And I can see these extremely cheap phones creating a new problem, landfill waste.

That's certainly not a new problem, since billions of phones have been sold for decades. Especially in richer nations.

Heck, Americans alone throw away something like a half million phones a DAY, of which fewer than 10% are recycled. And of those that are recycled, 80% are sent on container ships overseas to centers in places like China and India!

So at least in this case, it's more likely that those who can only afford this model, will also tend to try to get back some spare change by selling a dead one to a recycler who will reuse individual parts like batteries and displays, and then melt the rest down for precious metals.

 

[ganesh.raam]

Freedom 251

Here is the link:

 

[Chatter]

So there is no way they can even break even selling the phone for 251Rs. And there is no Govt subsidy (as claimed by the company). Check out the link: https://in.news.yahoo.com/rs-251-ringing-bells-freedom-225900306.html?nhp=1

"Sunit Singh Tuli, the CEO of Datawind which produces the $35 Akash tablet for the government a few years back, told indianexpress.com that a 3G device with the specs offered has a base manufacturing cost almost 8X higher than what’s being offered."

I really hate to say this but it feels like some kind of a scam. I just dont know what/how.

 

[kdarling]

The fact that they showed off someone else's phone, disguised, now does make it sound like a scam.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tech/ri...reedom-251-the-rs-251-smartphone-1205503.html

Too bad if so, since it would distract from other valid low cost devices.

Trouble for them is that they're so high profile now, how the heck would they think they could escape anywhere? Has to be more to this story. If it's not government subsidized, perhaps someone else is doing so.