After a delay of five months, Ringing Bells managed to dispatch the first lot of Freedom 251 smartphones.
On the first day, it reached out to 2,240 customers, said Mohit Goel, managing director, Ringing Bells.
Earlier, Ringing Bells conducted a lucky draw among 70 million registered customers and selected 5,000 applicants for the first leg of delivery.
The company, which shot to fame on the back of its claim to produce the world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs 251, will continue delivery of the remaining 2,760 till the next week.
“Another 2,000 handsets will be dispatched and 760, which are supposed to be delivered Uttar Pradesh, will reach customers on Monday,” Goel added.
On the first day of delivery, Ringing Bells covered five states.
Out of the 2,240 Freedom 251 models that were dispatched on Friday, Himachal Pradesh got the most number of devices at 605, followed by West Bengal, 540, Bihar, 484, Haryana, 390, and Uttarakhand, 221.
Ringing Bells has imported 200,000 smartphones to meet demand; another 195,000 handsets will be sold in a phased manner.
It is estimated that the company has incurred a loss of Rs 18.6 crore loss as every handset being sold is subsidised by Rs 930.
However, Goel says with additional funding from his new ventures in the consumer electronics and mobile handset space, he would be able to come up with more Rs 251 smartphones in the future.
