India based Ringing Bells has started selling Freedom 251 smartphone for Rs 251 ($3.6, £2.56), said to be cheapest smartphone in the world.
Earlier the company said that the price would be under Rs. 500 ($7.3, £5), but when the announcement came in, the price was dropped to Rs.251.
A spokeswoman from the company told the AFP: "This is our flagship model and we think it will bring a revolution in the industry."
The phone features a 4-inch WVGA (Wide Video Graphics Array) display, is powered by a 1.3 Ghz quad-core processor, a 1GM RAM, 8GB total storage space.
It has a 3.2 megapixel rear camera and a 0.8 megapixel front camera.
It come with a 1450 mAh battery and has dual 3G enabled SIM slots.
The specifications of the phone may not very impressive in the crowd of smartphones with high specifications, but at this price range, one cannot ask for more.
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Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha said in an interview with IBNLive that the cost of the handset could be brought down because of duty protection offered under Make In India and Digital India initiatives, economies of scale and by avoiding sales and marketing which further increase the expenses.
The company right now, like many Indian phone-makers, imports the parts mostly from China and assembles them in India.
But, the company says that soon that will change and it will start producing its phones at home.
The phone is targeted for rural areas where phone penetration is low. The company is trying to compete in a category already saturated by low-cost handsets.
The phone is not readily available and it must be booked in advance. The booking can be done between Feb 18 and Feb 21 at 8pm IST.
Some people who tried to book the phone faced some difficulty in completing the transaction, with huge demand for the phone.
The company, Ringing Bells was established in September 2015 and it has been selling mobile phones directly through its website.
The phones include a low-cost 4G enabled smartphone for Rs. 2500 ($37) and feature phones for Rs.999 ($14).
