Many experts are not convinced if the govt will be able to persuade buyers to purchase the tablet in large numbers
First Published: Sun, Jul 07 2013. 11 34 PM IST
70% of the tablets sold in India now retail below Rs.10,000, compared with just 10% when Aakash was commercially made available in October 2011.
Photo: Mint
If Aakash, the low-cost computer tablet aggressively promoted by the government to bridge India’s digital device, fails to live up to its promise, it won’t be for lack of trying.
After faltering on quality issues when it was launched in July 2010, the human resource ministry has again asked for vendor comments on the proposed fourth iteration of Aakash with strengthened specifications, which is expected to cost around Rs.3,000.
But the world has moved on since then and 70% of the tablets sold in India now retail below Rs.10,000, compared with just 10% when Aakash was commercially made available in October 2011. Many experts are not convinced if the government will be able to persuade buyers to purchase the tablet in large enough numbers.
“The specifications of Aakash 4 appear good on paper, but given the past experience, can the government ensure that good components are procured at the prices specified for Aakash 4 so that users can have a good experience?” asked Jayanth Kolla, founder and partner of research firm Convergence Catalyst.
Manasi Yadav, senior market analyst, mobile phones and tablets, at IDC Centre for Consultancy and Research, held a similar view.
“The specifications for Aakash 4 look good on paper, but we still have to wait and watch as to what the pricing will be,” Yadav said. “Most of these low-end tablets suffer on the quality and specifications owing to the price barriers that come into play.”
The minimum requirement for the latest version of Aakash, according to the official specifications list, includes 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GB or more integrated flash storage, slot for micro SD card 2.0, support for USB mouse, keyboard, cards, 3.5 mm jack, a seven-inch LCD screen, wi-fi connectivity, bluetooth and camera. It, however, makes no mention about the minimum processor speed.
India’s tablet market is dominated by low-cost devices, with about 74% of the volume coming from the sub-$200 category, according to Yadav. “Most of the local brands and Chinese vendors operate in this space,” she said.
Convergence Catalyst estimates that there were 1-1.2 million tablets in the Indian market in 2012, and expects the number to touch 3-3.5 million in 2013. “Of this, 65-70% are tablets that are priced below Rs.10,000,” Kolla said.
The cheapest tablet in India right now is a heavily discounted Wishtel Ira Thing 2. Available for Rs.2,999, Thing 2 has less RAM than Aakash 4, but in most other specs, it appears identical.
However, the best option in the low-cost category is the Lava E-tab Xtron+. Costing almost Rs.7,000, it is much more expensive than Aakash or Thing 2, but the user experience is smoother, according to a Mint review of the gadgets.
In contrast, the first two versions of Aakash were poorly made, poorly assembled and cumbersome to use, testing a user’s patience. There was no Aakash 3 because the next upgrade was called UbiSlate 7C+.
The Aakash 4’s proposed specifications suggest a device that is more user friendly, and the minimum qualification of being able to play high-definition video from the web sounds good.
Compared with the first Aakash, the second iteration was fairly responsive, and much more suited to its role as a students’ companion; reading e-books and checking email were smooth experiences.
The screen though was terrible. Unless the user perfectly aligned her eyes with it, the screen was unreadable. The touch screen was patchy, missing taps or turning them into swipes erratically.
There were also significant delays in the delivery of the upgraded version of Aakash 2, called UbiSlate 7C+.
Suneet Singh Tuli, chief executive officer of UK-based DataWind Ltd, said that “over 90% of what we’ve sold is the UbiSlate 7C+, and we’ve seen less than a 0.5% fault rate on that. This is better than industry norms”.
DataWind, which manufactured the earlier versions of Aakash, plans to bid for Aakash 4 too. Tuli expects the government “to put out the tender in August, award it by September and hopefully have devices in production by October”.
The government, Tuli said, intends to divide the estimated 5.7 million units amongst five bidders.
“The intent from the original 100,000 unit tender was also to divide it across four bidders,” he said by email. “Unfortunately, none of the other bidders were able to match our price.”
Tuli expressed surprise that Aakash 4 does not require embedded mobile-phone connectivity. He acknowledged that providing mobile connectivity with external dongles was impractical and “will add at least 50% extra to the cost of the product”.
Tuli reacted sharply to criticisms that cheap Chinese components were used in the Aakash devices. “It would help to define which of Apple or Micromax’s components are not Chinese,” he said. “And it would help to identify which of our components is cheap and not lasting.”
It has not been a smooth ride for the government’s dream tablet and there’s nothing to say that the situation will improve significantly.
Such low-cost initiatives, tied as they are to education, have thus far run out of steam due to lack of adequate supporting infrastructure, including content, unlimited data plans and applications, besides a robust distribution network, analysts, manufacturers and industry experts say.
Before Aakash was unveiled in 2011, there were attempts to produce a cheap, disruptive device that would break down the technological divide and transform education, and other areas of public and private life.
The Simputer, which stood for a simple, inexpensive and multilingual people’s computer, is a case in point. The handheld low-cost computing device was introduced in 2002 by the Simputer Trust, a non-profit organization formed by seven Indian scientists and engineers. It was touted as a device that would change the low-cost computing ecosystem in the country.
By 2011, when the Aakash was made commercially available with similar lofty aims, the Simputer had faded from public memory.
Globally, low-cost computing hasn’t managed to hold to price targets. The XO from Nicholas Negroponte , founder of the One Laptop per Child project, was initially priced at around $100. The laptops, which now sell in 40 countries including India, are priced in excess of $200.
