14th Jan 2012.
Live Mint |487 days ago
At $45 apiece, Aakash was billed as the world’s cheapest tablet PC, a device that could potentially close the gap between the digital haves and have-nots and transform education in India, when it was launched in October by human resource development (HRD), communications and information technology minister Kapil Sibal .
Some three months later, the HRD ministry is dissatisfied by the first field tests of Aakash and has decided to order fresh trials with an upgraded version of the device and a much larger sample size, two government officials said. In the first trials, students of institutions across the country tested 10,000 of the devices made by Canada-based DataWind Ltd.
In the first trials, which started before the launch and were spread over a six-month period, Aakash was found to be wanting in processor speed, the quality of its touch screen and battery life, among other issues. People involved in the trials said the tablet heated up quickly and was found to be inadequate in performing basic computing functions such as uploading and downloading of data and videos, browsing, among others.
Some three months later, the HRD ministry is dissatisfied by the first field tests of Aakash and has decided to order fresh trials with an upgraded version of the device and a much larger sample size, two government officials said. In the first trials, students of institutions across the country tested 10,000 of the devices made by Canada-based DataWind Ltd.
In the first trials, which started before the launch and were spread over a six-month period, Aakash was found to be wanting in processor speed, the quality of its touch screen and battery life, among other issues. People involved in the trials said the tablet heated up quickly and was found to be inadequate in performing basic computing functions such as uploading and downloading of data and videos, browsing, among others.
“We are aware of the problems facing the tablet,” said a senior government official with knowledge of the project, who didn’t want to be named. “The processor, battery and the screen have been in principle modified and will come with upgraded specifications in the next phase.”
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This time the trials will likely be carried out with a bigger sample size with the upgraded devices, the first official said.
The Mail Today newspaper reported on Friday that the project was being shelved and Zee News reported it was being put on hold.
However, N.K. Sinha, additional secretary in charge of technology-enabled learning at the HRD ministry, said: “There is no question of shelving it. We are expanding it in a big way.” He declined to give further details.
DataWind chief executive officer Suneet Singh Tuli said: “There is no indication that the project will be shelved.”
To be sure, the device may have also suffered in comparison with the world’s dominant tablet device, the iPad, which at Rs 30,000 for the cheapest version that can be bought locally is more than 10 times costlier.
In emailed responses to questions from Mint, Tuli said: “We put a ‘sold out’ sign on the basic Aakash tablet a month back and indicated to the market that the version is at ‘end of life’, and the commercial version will be the next generation with upgraded features.”
“The product manufactured to date has met and exceeded all the specifications, features and criteria specified in the tender. The product’s quality has been confirmed by both national (government-recognized) and international labs,” Tuli added. “The product road map and future enhancements is not ‘news’ and not a sign of failure—these were clearly laid out by us at the 5 October launch event through live demos and in our press release. To imply that product enhancements represent a failure of the initial product is not correct—technology products continuously go through enhancements, and we’ve committed to introducing two new generations annually.”
The seven-inch tablet launched in October ran on the Android 2.2 operating system, providing access to only select apps, and was the result of a plan conceived six years ago by the HRD ministry at a time when neither Android nor touch screen tablets existed. Aakash gained global attention for its next-to-impossible price point—Rs 2,276 ($45 at the time of launch). The HRD ministry has a target of procuring a few million tablets within this price.
The initial order placed with DataWind was for 100,000 units, with the upgraded model being provided after the first 30,000 units, Tuli had said previously. The first official cited above said DataWind had agreed to supply the remaining 70,000 tablets at the same price point as in October.
“For us, the cap is Rs 2,276. Any change in price will be towards the lower end,” the same official said.
The first version of the tablet ran on a 366 megahertz (MHz) processor and had a random access memory of 256 megabytes, with an in-built memory of 2 gigabytes (GB), expandable up to 32GB.
“The device has failed a good number of tests at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur,” said the second of the government officials cited above. This official, too, declined to be named.
Students who tested the device during the initial phase of trials voiced their dissatisfaction and suggested improvements.
A student at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, who tested the device, said that even though Aakash’s Internet speed was good, some of its hardware components had been stuck together with tape and the device had been heating up very quickly, causing the operating system to either crash or get corrupted.
“My device got corrupted in three-four days only and had to be sent back to IIT Rajasthan. I was later given a new device to work on,” said the student, who did not want to be named. Many students of his college, who tested the device, found it getting corrupted with three-four weeks of usage, he said.
According to the first official cited above, the HRD ministry-controlled IIT Rajasthan has a commercial tie-up with DataWind for procuring 100,000 Aakash tablets. This “tie-up may or may not continue”.
“Through a fresh tendering, the ministry will finalize the vendor,” said the official.
A student at IIT Punjab said the processor speed and storage capacity weren’t up to the mark.
“We are aware that Aakash is being made available at a really low price, but unless it meets working-level specifications, it will not be of much help for students at our level,” said the person, who didn’t want to be named.
DataWind, which has also launched its upgraded Ubislate7+ for online retail, said on its website that pre-bookings have reached around “100,000 individual end user sales each day” and cumulatively exceed over two million units.
The upgraded model has a Cortex A8-700 MHz processor, an extended battery life and will also have GPRS (general packet radio service) and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Tuli in an earlier interaction with Mint maintained that there will be no change in the price point.
“If the price point reaches say $80, then it’s useless. We have to maintain the sub-$50 price point,” he said.
Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst at technology research firm Gartner India, said users who aren’t looking for a seamless experience and just want a device to carry around may opt for Aakash.
“Indians like to feel and experience a product before buying anything. The fact that this one is very cheap also adds to the scepticism. We have to see how many such pre-bookings actually translate into actual sales,” Tripathi said.
First Published: Sat, Jan 14 2012. 12 45 AM IST
