印度推出最便宜智能手機:售價僅爲iPhone 6S的1%

A little-known Indian company is launching a smartphone on Wednesday believed to be the cheapest in the world, targeting a market already dominated by low-cost handsets.

印度的智能手機市場上充斥着低端產品，而本週三一家名不見經傳的公司更是發佈了一款世界上最便宜的智能手機。

Set to be priced at under 500 rupees (about 5.1 pounds), domestic handset maker Ringing Bells' Freedom 251 smartphone is about 1% of the price of the latest Apple iPhone.

印度本土手機生產商Ringing Bell發佈的自由251智能手機，售價僅爲500盧布（約合5.1英鎊），約爲蘋果最新款手機（iPhone 6S）售價的百分之一。

Ringing Bells was set up in September 2015 and began selling mobile phones via its website a few weeks ago under its Bell brand, a spokeswoman said.

該公司的一位女發言人介紹說，Ringing Bells於2015年9月剛剛成立，成立幾周後就在其官網上出售手機。

"This is our flagship model and we think it will bring a revolution in the industry," she told AFP. Ringing Bells currently imports parts from overseas and assembles them in India but plans to make its phones domestically within a year, the spokeswoman added.

她接受法新社採訪時表示："自由251是公司的旗艦產品，我們認爲這款手機將會帶來一場行業革命。"這位發言人還表示，Ringing Bells目前的生產模式是從國外進口零件，在印度進行組裝。不過公司計劃在一年內實現手機生產組裝本土化。

Cheap smartphones, many of them Chinese-made, are readily available in the Indian market but domestic competitors are making inroads, with models selling for less than 14 pounds.

如今印度市場上到處是低價的智能手機，其中大多數都是中國公司生產的。本土的生產商亦不甘示弱，甚至推出過售價14英鎊的機型。

India is the world's second-largest mobile market and notched up its billionth mobile phone subscriber in October, according to the country's telecoms regulator. But in poorer Indian states such as Bihar, "teledensity" – the penetration of telephone connections for every 100 people – is as low as 54%, with a stark urban-rural divide.

印度是世界第二大手機市場，據印度電信部門官員介紹，2015年十月印度的手機用戶達到了10億人。但是，在像比哈爾邦這樣的窮地方，"電信密度"--也就是一百人中使用電話的人數--僅爲54%，城鄉差距非常明顯。