Since the announcement of its launch, the Freedom 251 has generated considerable excitement for being the world's cheapest smartphone at just Rs 251 ($4). However since its high-profile launch yesterday, the phone has run into a series of controversies.

The smartphone is being manufactured by a little-known Indian company named Ringing Bells, which was established only a few months ago. With its affordable price, it has the potential to disrupt India's smartphone market, which is the among the fastest-growing in the world. However, a series of questions are now being raised about just how the phone is so cheap, its uncanny iPhone-like design and website glitches.

Yesterday, the country's mobile industry body Indian Cellular Association wrote to the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to inquire into why the price was as low as Rs 251, arguing that that it could not be below Rs 3,500 ($51) even after subsidies.

“For your kind information, the bill of material value for a product like this when sourced from the cheapest supply chain cost approximately Rs 2,700 ($40). And this, when translated into retail price after addition of applicable duties, taxes and with distribution and retail margins would be at least Rs 4,100 ($60) while the product is being sold at Rs 251,” ICA national president Pankaj Mohindroo wrote in the letter.

Running on an Android 5.1 operating system, the 3G phone comes with a 4-inch WVGA resolution display, a 1.3Ghz quadcore processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and a 1450 mAh battery. It also has a 3.2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front camera.

ICA further clarified that there was no visible mobile operator subisidy for the phone, and that even if the Freedom 251 was being sold at lower margins, it could not be priced below Rs.3,500-3,800 ($52-55). In addition, it suggested that senior government leadership should not be present at the launch. India's defence minister Manohar Parrikar was supposed to launch the phone, but did not turn up at the last moment.

To add to its troubles, the phone-maker's website crashed this morning, within a few hours of taking pre-orders. The company had announced that it would take online bookings from Feb. 18, but numerous customers took to Twitter to complain about problems while making the payment.

"Try and try until you succeed" taught #Freedom251 website — Sanket Dharap (@sanket_dharap) February 18, 2016

Me after trying hundred of times to go past Pay Now page for #Freedom251 #RingingBells pic.twitter.com/g7DBObLXBo — Apurb K Choudhary (@beingAPU) February 18, 2016

After my all observations I get the result that This isn't pay now button This is hell refresh button #Freedom251 pic.twitter.com/CSbdBlAwWB — Tarun (@tkcthousand) February 18, 2016

Soon after, the website stated that its servers were "overloaded" due to over 600,000 hits per second and that the company was taking a pause to upgrade the servce and would resume booking within 24 hours.

#Freedom251 Chinese Smartphone. Whitener used to Hide Name. Sold in garb of Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign pic.twitter.com/BLAZPSBJWk — Joy (@Joydas) February 18, 2016

Finally, it has been pointed out that the handset resembles the iPhone, with the app icons appearing to be a copy of Apple's iOS. This could amount to a violaton of intellectual property rights, since Apple clearly prohibits the use of its logos and icons without a trademark license. Further, the model presented at the lauch was a rebranded version of the Chinese smartphone Adcom Icon 4, poorly disguised with a whitener pasted above the logo.