DC | Amrita Didyala | 05th Jun 2013
Hyderabad: Aakash tablet manufacturer Datawind, which had left customers in the lurch 18 months ago, is back with an upgraded version of the Ubislate 7Ci and Ubislate 7C+ that it has failed to deliver, and which it is now offering for Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000.
In the interim, private manufacturers have captured the market and many customers who had pre-booked the Ubislate, and had no communication from Datawind about their order, have bought other tablets.
At the time it was launched, there was a huge demand for Ubislate, which is the commercial version of the Rs 1,500 high-end Aakash tablet, as it had the latest features and a low price. But tab-lets with similar features have been brought out by leading mobile phone manufacturers since then.
It may be too late for Aakash relaunch
Soon after launching Aakash, Datawind announced the commercial version of the tablet, Ubislate. Aakash is being manufactured only for the Government of India’s programme to provide each student with a tablet.
While the idea of the low-cost, high-performance tablet was conceived in India, UK-based Data-wind designed and developed the tablet in Canada and parts were secured from across the globe.
The tablet was assembled and programmed in India. The latest version, the Ubislate 7C1, is being manufactured in India. In fact, Hyderabad-based Centre for Defence Research and Development Organisation contributed to the technology for the Aakash.
So now, when the company has come back with the latest version for Rs 5,000 and promising immediate delivery, it may be too late since there are many players in the market now with similar products.
“I had pre-booked the initial version of the tablet about one-and-a-half years back. In the meantime, I have already gone for a costlier tablet due to the delay. There was no way to get in touch with the company apart from an email address which never replied,” said Pratyusha Panda, a bank employee.
