When the Noida-based “Ringing Bells” company launched India’s most affordable smart phone yesterday, the Freedom 251 smarphone for Rs251, the demand was so high that the company’s website crashed and has been unable to sell smart phones for hours.
A smart phone priced at Rs251 which is, as the website Independent.co.uk quotes, as being valued “about as much a cup of coffee” was sure to have a mass appeal. Indeed that has been the case. The furor over such an inexpensive smart phone has not gone unnoticed by the various regulatory agencies. Indeed, the ICA (Indian Cellular Association) wrote to TeleCom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying that the rate for this phone could not conceivably be below Rs 3,500 – even after a subsidized sale. And yet here it is. A smart phone featuring a 4-inch display, with a 960 x 540 pixels resolution, a 3.2MP rear facing camera and a 0.3 MP front facing camera. Its connectivity features include 3G capability, WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth, a GPS and an amazing 1,450 mAh battery all running on an Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system with a Qualcomm 1.3-GHz quad-core processor and 1 GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded further up to 32GB using a microSD card. It is just unimaginable that such a device with such features is possible at such a price – and yet here it is for just Rs 251!
Life is all about the disruptors. When electricity was developed, the kerosene lamp industry fought it as being a dangerous new thing which could electrocute people. When Alexander Graham Bell tried to sell his new invention, the telephone, to AT&T he was told that it was a “nice toy” but that no one would ever use it. When Henry Ford tried to sell his idea for an internal combustion vehicle called an automobile, the industry “experts” of the time told him that this new vehicle was “cute” but that “the horse and buggy are here to stay.” Disruptors have always and will always upset the status quo. That is why they are called disruptors. Change is difficult for humans. We like life to remain predictable, known and comfortable. There is a saying that “the only one who likes change is a wet baby” and yet change is what life and living are all about.
We at IndiaFreelancers.com say “let’s embrace change” rather than wish it was not happening. If indeed the Rs 251 mobile telephone is here to stay, lets create programs for it. Lets develop apps for it and lets become familiar with it. If the Ringing Bells website crashed because it was receiving “6 Lacs hits per second” (600,000 hits per second), this tells us that the likelihood is that the Freedome 251 – and/or others similar to it – are here to stay and we should learn to code and develop for them and their inevitable subsequent copies – rather than resist them.
Ranjiv P for Indiafreelancers.com
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