26th June 2012
June 26, 2012, 9:52 am 2 Comments
Courtesy of I.I.T. Bombay
Professors from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and the principal of K. J. Somaiya Engineering College, Shubha Pandit, pose with the Aakash-2 tablet at the launch event on Monday in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The Aakash-2, or the new and improved version of Aakash, India’s super-cheap tablet computer, was introduced in Mumbai on Monday.
Unlike last year, when the first incarnation of the gadget was made public under the media glare, Monday’s event was a rather unceremonious one. The low-cost computing device was unveiled on the sidelines of a teacher’s training workshop at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, which was viewed by more than 9,000 college teachers through video conferencing. Around 80 attendees, including the staff from I.I.T. Bombay and the heads of four other engineering schools in Maharashtra viewed the Aakash-2 in real life.
Each of these four engineering schools was given one tablet from the 100 that I.I.T. Bombay, which is spearheading the project, currently owns. Improvements over the original Aakash include a faster processor speed, improved battery life and a touch screen with better quality resolution.
Courtesy of I.I.T. Bombay
A programming application runs on the Aakash-2 tablet.
It may still be a while before students (or curious media) get to test drive the tablet themselves. India Ink spoke to professors from two of the four schools to get their firsthand user experience.
“It is very handy, light and I am delighted to use it,” said Shubha Pandit, principal of K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering in Mumbai. Ms. Pandit had not used the earlier version of the low-cost computing device. She browsed through the applications on Aakash-2, which were created especially for students.
Ms. Pandit said the cost of the computer remains the greatest appeal of the product. Aakash-2 will be available to students at a subsidized price of 1,132 rupees ($21).
Anil D. Sahastrabudhe, director of the College of Engineering in Pune, compared Aakash-2 to the world’s most popular tablet. “It is almost an iPad,” he said. “This would be the ideal low-cost computing device.” But he added that the speed of the device was comparatively slower than the high-end Apple product.
Mr. Sahastrabudhe said he worked on the tablet computer for two hours in the car as he traveled from Mumbai to Pune and noted that the battery lasted almost two-and-a-half hours.
India’s low-cost computer project was derailed for several months because of many unresolved issues between various parties involved, and was handed over to I.I.T. Bombay about three months ago.
DataWind, the company that designed the original tablet, is contracted to deliver 100,000 Aakash-2 tablets to I.I.T. Bombay over six months.
Professor Deepak B. Phatak, who is in charge of the Aakash project at I.I.T. Bombay, said he hopes to have a few thousand tablets by the end of July. The tablets will be sent to students across 168 colleges for field testing and user feedback.
Separately, several batches will be tested for quality and usability at the Center for Development for Advanced Computing, a laboratory that operates under the Ministry of Information and Technology.
The Ministry of Human Resources Development said an official release is slated for the end of July.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 29, 2012
Aakash-2 will be available to students at a subsidized price of about $21 and not 2,263 rupees, or about $39, that is the cost at which the government will procure each tablet from the manufacturer.
