For a long time, the $35 tablet - Sakshat - looked like a myth. However, after multiple delays and grumbles from several quarters (some mocking in the international blogs too), Minister of Communications and IT, Kapil Sibal, under whose aegis the project has been nurtured, finally unveiled the$35
tablet device.
With a new name - Aakash - the device overshoots the earlier widely quoted $35 price tag, but has the potential to reach out to masses and is worth the latest price. The manufacturing cost of the device is $37.98, while adding up transportation, warranty, and other costs, the price bumps up to $49.98. That's just Rs.2276! Add to it the Government subsidy that would let institutes to offer their students these tablets at half that price.
Aakash has been designed, developed, and manufactured by DataWind, a British company, in collaboration with IIT Rajasthan under the HRD Ministry's National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). The HRD Ministry is buying 100,000 tablets from DataWind for Rs 2250 per unit inclusive of taxes and freight charges.
The Android 2.2 based device features a 7-inch resistive touchscreen and only one face button. There are no volume or back buttons. The device has support for two USB ports and a micro SD card slot along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and the DC in port. Under the hood, Aakash runs on a 366MHz Connexant processor and 256MB RAM with a dedicated HD video processor and 2GB on board flash storage. The device runs full HD videos at 1080p smoothly. The battery life of the device is a bit of a let-down and at 2100mAh; it would last for a maximum 3 hours.The overall build quality is good and there is a rubberized finish to it.
Aakash comes bundled with DataWind's UbiSurfer browser and Nimbuzz app for social networking and instant messaging. For installing other Android apps, the tablet is GetJar enabled but does not support the Android Marketplace. Also, the National Programme of Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL) has already put up an ecosystem of web-enabled course content and all the video lectures, animations, simulations, notes, and tests are available to students free of cost at http://nptel.iitm.ac.in.
The device is profitable at this moment but one of the major challenges that Akaash, and DataWind, would face is sustenance. While DataWind confesses that producing the tablet in China would be cheaper (The device would also be exempted from custom duties since it is an educational device), the 'Made in India' tag hasn't been compromised. Interestingly, the tablet would also be available commercially for mass-market starting November 2011 as UbiSlate for Rs. 2999. In a market with recent entrants like Beetel Magiq and Reliance Tab in the Rs. 10,000-15,000 price range, this could be a disruptive addition.
Mr. Sibal and his team deserve full credit for realizing the dream and fighting against some real odds and some adverse perceptions. A successful model like this could be taken to other developing countries and also beyond education to diverse e-governance initiatives. Good job, Minister.
With a new name - Aakash - the device overshoots the earlier widely quoted $35 price tag, but has the potential to reach out to masses and is worth the latest price. The manufacturing cost of the device is $37.98, while adding up transportation, warranty, and other costs, the price bumps up to $49.98. That's just Rs.2276! Add to it the Government subsidy that would let institutes to offer their students these tablets at half that price.
Aakash has been designed, developed, and manufactured by DataWind, a British company, in collaboration with IIT Rajasthan under the HRD Ministry's National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). The HRD Ministry is buying 100,000 tablets from DataWind for Rs 2250 per unit inclusive of taxes and freight charges.
The Android 2.2 based device features a 7-inch resistive touchscreen and only one face button. There are no volume or back buttons. The device has support for two USB ports and a micro SD card slot along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and the DC in port. Under the hood, Aakash runs on a 366MHz Connexant processor and 256MB RAM with a dedicated HD video processor and 2GB on board flash storage. The device runs full HD videos at 1080p smoothly. The battery life of the device is a bit of a let-down and at 2100mAh; it would last for a maximum 3 hours.The overall build quality is good and there is a rubberized finish to it.
Aakash comes bundled with DataWind's UbiSurfer browser and Nimbuzz app for social networking and instant messaging. For installing other Android apps, the tablet is GetJar enabled but does not support the Android Marketplace. Also, the National Programme of Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL) has already put up an ecosystem of web-enabled course content and all the video lectures, animations, simulations, notes, and tests are available to students free of cost at http://nptel.iitm.ac.in.
The device is profitable at this moment but one of the major challenges that Akaash, and DataWind, would face is sustenance. While DataWind confesses that producing the tablet in China would be cheaper (The device would also be exempted from custom duties since it is an educational device), the 'Made in India' tag hasn't been compromised. Interestingly, the tablet would also be available commercially for mass-market starting November 2011 as UbiSlate for Rs. 2999. In a market with recent entrants like Beetel Magiq and Reliance Tab in the Rs. 10,000-15,000 price range, this could be a disruptive addition.
Mr. Sibal and his team deserve full credit for realizing the dream and fighting against some real odds and some adverse perceptions. A successful model like this could be taken to other developing countries and also beyond education to diverse e-governance initiatives. Good job, Minister.
DataWind
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Industry | Computers |
|---|---|
| Founded | Montreal, Canada |
| Headquarters | London Amritsar, India Dallas,Texas Mississauga, Ontario.[1] |
| Key people | Suneet Tuli, CEO Raja Tuli, Co-founder David Elder,COO |
| Products | Aakash tablet Ubislate 7 PocketSurfer Pocketsurfer2 Pocketsurfer3 |
| Website | www.datawind.com |
DataWind is a company manufacturing and marketing wireless web access products, originally founded in Montreal
in 2001 by brothers Suneet and Raja Tuli from the Indian state of Punjab. Now headquartered in London,
With its research and development based in Montreal, the company until 2010 marketed its production primarily in the UK, where it is registered as anLLC.[4] In 2004, the company was described as a "small tech shop"[5] marketing its key product, the Pocketsurfer, a pda/cell phone/web browser device. Several iterations of the Pocketsurfer followed.
Datawind is now widely known for its development of the Aakash, an inexpensive tablet computer developed in conjunction with India's Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD) and now seen as a way for the country to leapfrog the problems of educating its large population.[3] Following a development process beset by delays and setbacks,[2] the tablet will be offered at a sufficiently low price threshold – distributed by the government to students at a subsized price of $35[2] and to the public (as the Ubislate 7) for $60[2] – to enable ubiquitous,[2] nationwide internet use. At the subsidized price, the tablet will cost about the price of a pair of shoes[6] or a basic cell phone.[3]
In 2010 the company won an Indian government tender[2] to design the Aakash tablet computer[7] – now under manufacture by the Indian company, Quad, in an initial trial run of 100,000 units.[4] TheWall Street Journal called the Aakash, "the world's cheapest tablet."[8][edit]Aakash tablet
The seven-inch touch-screen tablet[1][2] was co-developed with Datawind and Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan[8] as part of the country's aim to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program[9] with an ultimate production goal of tens of millions of units.[4] Datawind projects the Indian government will buy 8 million to 10 million devices by early 2012.[10] Time Magazinereported in 2011 that Datawind is considering marketing tailored variants of the Aakash in the U.K., the U.S. and Latin America.[11]
In a 2011 interview, the company said it lowered the price of the tablet by developing patents to shift the device's processing burden to "backend servers in the cloud,"[12] by eliminating middle men whenever possible (DataWind itself designed the Aakash's boards, integrated components in-house and made the device's touch panel[13]), and by monetizing the operating system – that is, selling apps for the device through its own app store.[12] Despite using the Android operating system, the device does not have access to the Android Market.[6]
[edit]Future
ITPro India and other sources report that Datawind is co-developing with Reliance Industries to the world’s least expensive 4G-enabled tablet.[14]
Following the announcement of the Aakash, Datawind met with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
