Well, the company behind the Freedom 251 says it isn't subsidised and they use "economics of scale". Sounds legit ;-)
"No telecom carriers have come forward to announce their partnership with Ringing Bells, so a carrier-based subsidy is off the charts.
Government subsidy was ruled out by the company at the launch event. As reported by NDTV Gadgets who were present at the launch event, Ringing Bells President Ashok Chadha confirmed that there is ‘no government subsidy’ for the Freedom 251"
This is more like a using the state for eminent domain/land acquisition for a factory and collect perks and subsidies from government while getting debt from Public sector banks and at a later date cashing the real estate and dumping the factories etc on the Banks while making lot of cash.
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"The phone will be manufactured in Noida and Uttaranchal. Two plants will be set up for Rs 250 crore (appx. 37 million USD) each with a capacity of 5 lakh phones. The money will come in the form of debt and equity (1.5:1)," he said.
<<<
Murali Manohar Joshi who used to be a top tier leader of the current ruling BJP attended the ceremony. So, this scam has deep collaborators.
More of a fiasco than a scam. Somewhat like Aakash tablets (they created a buzz for sub 100$ tablet 4-5 years back). What is likely going to happen is very few (if any) customers will actually get the 4$ phones. The website will never show phones in stock. After all the buzz, they may eventually come up with a more realistic 40-50$ phone.
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[ 9.7 ms ] story [ 610 ms ] thread"No telecom carriers have come forward to announce their partnership with Ringing Bells, so a carrier-based subsidy is off the charts.
Government subsidy was ruled out by the company at the launch event. As reported by NDTV Gadgets who were present at the launch event, Ringing Bells President Ashok Chadha confirmed that there is ‘no government subsidy’ for the Freedom 251"
Source: http://www.xda-developers.com/freedom-251-why-it-is-a-3-7-an...
They might be losing money on every sale, but they'll make it up on volume...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11126398
The worst part is government officials are endorsing the phone?
It is someone just trying to raise funds via preorders to try to get one made, like some kind of kickstarter and the press just ran with it?
You have to remember that even before kickstarter people managed to scam others. Kickstarter isn't really required for that.
Joshi is an entitled superstitious hindu fanatic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yND74tSqlBA If he endorses the product, it is probably a scam
By that same standard, every Republican presidential candidate is a "Christian fanatic", but nobody uses that term for the Republicans.
>>> "The phone will be manufactured in Noida and Uttaranchal. Two plants will be set up for Rs 250 crore (appx. 37 million USD) each with a capacity of 5 lakh phones. The money will come in the form of debt and equity (1.5:1)," he said. <<<
Murali Manohar Joshi who used to be a top tier leader of the current ruling BJP attended the ceremony. So, this scam has deep collaborators.
http://zeenews.india.com/business/gadgets/gadgets-news/freed...
With enough grease in the palm, any politician can be made to appear.