Saturday, October 8, 2011

India launches world's cheapest Android Tablet "Aakash"



Few days back Amazon had released Kindle Fire Tablet for $199, and it was known as cheapest Tablet.

Now, India has launched a Table just for $35 USD to become the Cheapest Tablet in the World. This Tablet is named as "Aakash" which translates to "sky".


The Indian Government distributed its low-cost tablet "Aakash" to 500 college students from all over the country on Wednesday.

The government this week said it will sell the tablets "Aakash" to schools for as low as 1,100 rupees ($22 US), far less than Hewlett Packard Co.’s discontinued TouchPad ($99) and Amazon.com Inc.’s new Kindle Fire ($199)


While it is certainly the cheapest tablet available, it is not the most feature rich. The Android-powered tablet features 2 GB of storage space, expandable to 32 GB, a 366 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM memory, and a 7-inch, 800-by-400 pixel resolution touchscreen. It also has two USB ports, WiFi connectivity, and video conferencing capabilities.

The device is said to be capable of playing videos, games, and Internet browsing.




India plans to get these tablets at 2,250 rupees ($46 US) each from U.K.-based DataWind Ltd and sell it to schools at subsidized prices.

Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India's hope of getting its 220 million children online.

While the tablet costs around $50 to manufacture, colleges and schools will be able to buy the device for $35 for student use. It will launch to the general public in December at a price of around $60 under the name “UbiSlate.”

There are concerns that the slow and reportedly somewhat unresponsive touchscreen will hinder the government’s attempts to put an Aakash in the hands of every student. But for many, the simple availability of the tablet is a revolution.

“The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded,” said Kapil Sibal, Indian education minister. “Aakash will end that digital divide.”

“This is a made-in-India product,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, who manufactures the tablet. The Indian government put out a tender to develop the tablet and initially reached an agreement with HCL Infosystems, but the deal broke down after the company realized that it could not reach the government’s price target.

Both Sibal and Suneet Singh Tuli called for competition to improve the product and drive prices down further.

$35 Tablet "Aakash" is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include a $2,040 compact Nano car, a $15 water purifier and $2,000 open-heart surgery. [Source USToday]


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2 comments:

android-oz said...

very nice info

server cabinets said...

Well Akash has lot of expectation.Really love to see that how much it competes with other tablet in the market.Great post thanks for sharing.

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