227 - India’s Aakash 2 tablet launched in UK for £30 - First Post

India’s Aakash 2 tablet launched in UK for £30

Dec 17, 2013 

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/indias-aakash-2-tablet-launched-in-uk-for-30-1290495.html?utm_source=ref_article

London: A commercial version of India's low-cost Aakash 2 tablet computer was today launched in Britain at a cost of 30 pounds. The UbiSlate 7Ci, made by UK-based company Datawind, is based on Aakash 2, which is mainly used by students in India and was designed to provide cheap internet access to help improve education. Analysts said British customers buying the tablet and comparing it with others on the market may be disappointed.

The 7 inch Android tablet has wi-fi connectivity, 512MB of RAM, a microUSB connection and 4GB of storage, BBC reported. When the Aakash was launched in India in 2011 it was dubbed the "world's cheapest touch-screen tablet" and was aimed at schools and colleges. The first version was not well received by critics, but an upgraded version, the Aakash 2, fared better. Speaking at the Wired 2013 conference in October, Suneet Singh Tuli, who founded Datawind, said getting online was all about affordability. "It's not just about creating low-cost devices, for us it's about delivering the internet," he said. A partnership with the Indian government helped the Aakash 2 became one of the country's best-selling tablets. "At the start of this year we became the largest supplier of tablet computers in India, ahead of both Apple and Samsung," said Tuli. The company said it could afford to sell the product at such a low price as the cost of the hardware was offset with revenue from content and advertising. "The reality is that with any consumer electronics device you get what you pay for," said Ben Wood, an analyst at research company CCS Insight. "Any consumer buying this tablet with the expectation it will deliver a comparable experience to more expensive, yet affordable, Android tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Tesco's Hudl will be sorely disappointed." PTI

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/indias-aakash-2-tablet-launched-in-uk-for-30-1290495.html?utm_source=ref_article

250 - After Aakash, DataWind launches low cost tablets starting at Rs 3999 - Economic Times

After Aakash, DataWind launches low cost tablets starting at Rs 3999

PTI Oct 9, 2013, 08.26PM IST

NEW DELHI: Low-priced Aakash tablet maker DataWind today launched affordable phablets or tablets with voice call facility at prices starting from Rs 3,999.

The 'UbiSlate 7Cx' is the company's cheapest 7-inch tablet with cellular connectivity, allowing internet access with a regular SIM, Datawind said.

In addition, the UK-based company has launched 9-inch tablet UbiSlate 9Ci at Rs 4,999 and its first 3G device UbiSlate 3G7 at Rs 6,999.

"Despite the recent drop in value of the Indian rupee, we have held strong and not increased pricing of our products, and instead, now are introducing new products with breakthrough pricing," DataWind President & CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said in a statement.

In addition to regular voice calling feature, UbiSlate phablets incorporate web-delivery platform which would allow devices to deliver the fastest mobile web experience on regular GSM-EDGE based networks, the company claimed.

"All of the new models are in-stock and available for immediate delivery," it said.

The UbiSlate 7Cx and the UbiSlate 9Ci run on Andriod Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 OS, while UbiSlate 3G7 runs on Andriod 4.1 system.

Ubislate7Cx has internal memory of 2GB, 512 RAM and 1 Ghz Cortex A8 processor. The rest two have internal memory of 4GB, front VGA camera and support Wi-Fi networks.

DataWind had bagged a contract from IT department for supplying 1 lakh low-priced tablets, named Aakash, which was billed as the world's cheapest tablet PC.

215 - Aakash 2 Tablet Demo

Aakash 2 Tablet Demo

Published on 4 Jul 2013

Dr. Benn Konsynski demos the Aakash 2 tablet at the Wireless Technology Forum meeting. Aakash 2 is the world's cheapest Android tablet at a price point of $20 USD or 11,000 rupees.
Dr. Benn Konsynski - http://goizueta.emory.edu/faculty/aca...
Aakash Tablet - http://akashtablet.com/

154 - Punjab govt to distribute Aakash tablets among students in rural areas - Tech 2

Punjab govt to distribute Aakash tablets among students in rural areas

29 May, 2013 | by tech2 News Staff 

In its attempt to strengthen higher education in the rural areas of Punjab, the state government has said that 1.5 lakh students here would be given Aakash tablets from this session, at a cost of Rs 110 crores.  Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Education) Inderbir Singh Bolaria said in Amritsar, that the education sector was a priority for the SAD-BJP government. By distributing these tablets among students from the rural areas, the government is looking to make them aware about the use of technology in education these days.  To cost Govt Rs 110 crores Just this month, Aakash tablet manufacturer, Datawind announced the completion of delivery of 100,000 units of its low-cost tablet - Aakash 2. The total delivery included 98,000 Aakash 2 devices and 2,000 units of tablets with DataWind’s recommendations for Aakash 3, at a price of Rs 2,263. One of the world’s cheapest tablets, the tablet is spec'd competitively in comparison to other low-cost slates and is said to be half the price of a similarly-outfitted tablet in the market.  The 7-inch WVGA display is manufactured at India’s only touch-screen manufacturing facility in Amritsar. Under the hood of the Aakash 2 is a Cortex-A8 1Ghz processor of the same calibre as the original iPad; in addition, there is 512MB of RAM.  DataWind announced that it had completed deliveries of its pre-paid backlog with less than one percent of pre-paid backlog customers pending, due to lack of courier coverage or contact information.  News Sources

152 - India's $35 Tablet Getting New Hardware, Android 4.0 - Tech Hive

India's $35 Tablet Getting New Hardware, Android 4.0

By Agam Shah, IDG News Service

• Apr 9, 2012 1:24 PM

India's highly touted $35 tablet, set to ship in two to three weeks, is getting a makeover with improved hardware and Google's Android 4.0 OS, according to the company assembling the device for the Indian government.

The second-generation Aakash 2 will have a 7-inch capacitive multitouch screen and a faster single-core, 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind. The new $35 tablet will ship with Android 2.3, but will be upgradeable to Android 4.0 about six to eight weeks after delivery, Tuli said.

"The product development is complete and deliveries are expected to start for Aakash 2 in about two or three weeks," Tuli said in an email.

The tablet's total price is around $45, and the Indian government will subsidize that to $35, Tuli said. The Indian government has budgeted for the acquisition of about 5 million units for the country's fiscal year, which started on April 1, and the tablet will be further upgraded as component prices come down, Tuli said.

The original $35 tablet was announced in July 2010 by the Indian government as a subsidized low-cost computing device for students in the country. Shipments started late last year but have been affected by disputes between Datawind and an Indian education institution responsible for providing specifications and testing the tablet.

The Aakash 2 is a significant upgrade over the original $35 tablet, Aakash, which means sky in Hindi. The original tablet had a 7-inch resistive touchscreen, Android 2.2 and a slower 366MHz processor based on an older ARM architecture. The Aakash 2 will have 256MB of RAM and 2GB flash storage, which are the same as the original $35 tablet.

The tablet will likely be upgraded to dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processors by the end of the year, Tuli said. Many tablets today use Cortex-A9 processors, including models from Samsung, Asus, Acer and Lenovo.

"We're confident that by the fall, Cortex A9 dual-core processors will be in the same [price] range as what Cortex A8 is at today," Tuli said.

The development and deployment of the original Aakash tablet has been marred by controversies. The Indian government was expected to buy 8 million to 10 million units of the original Aakash tablet by March 31 this year, which was the end of the Indian fiscal year. But shipments have been much lower than expected mostly due to disagreements between Datawind and Indian Institute of Technology-Rajasthan, which was responsible for providing specifications and field testing for the device.

The differences between Datawind and IIT-Rajasthan related to testing criteria used to see if the tablet met certain requirements, Tuli said. The original Aakash device was tested on parameters such as shock, water resistance, temperature and dust and humidity, according to a document sent by Tuli describing test results.

IIT-Rajasthan has now been removed from the project, and the Aakash project has been transferred to the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Tuli said. IIT-Bombay will also be the first buyer of Aakash 2 and purchase about 100,000 units. IIT-Bombay, in Mumbai, and IIT-Rajasthan, in Jodhpur, are among the top science and engineering educational institutions in India.

IIT-Rajasthan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

147 - Three U.S. cities try out $40 tablets in schools - The Full Signal

Three U.S. cities try out $40 tablets in schools

16:03, May 22 2013

Three U.S. cities are rolling out DataWind's Aakash tablets into schools

Three U.S. cities are taking part in a pilot plan to roll out cheap tablets to schools.

DataWind's Aakash tablets are being given to children in Silicon Valley and Atlanta, with Las Vegas beginning its trial soon.

The cheapest tablet, called the Aakash 2 tablet costs just $40.41 and features many aspects either better, or comparable to the original iPad.

There's a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, a 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel screen and VGA camera.

For an extra $5, you can purchase the 3G and Wi-Fi model.

Following hugely successful trials in India, where the vast majority of children drop out of school before they hit eighth grade, the tablets will be used as an education tool.

When DataWind opened up its order page in India, it expected to get around 50,000 orders in a year. In fact, it found demand was so high for such a low cost device (around 25 percent of a typical Indian's monthly salary), it was getting 100,000 orders per day.

With a backlog of four million worldwide, the company has now shipped 100,000 devices to the government for distribution in schools and 500,000 to consumers.

The Indian government now plans to hand out the tablet to 220 million school children as an educational aid. Thailand, Turkey, Nigeria, Honduras, Brazil, Panama and Nicaragua have all announced they too, will be considering rolling out tablets as part of their education policy.

Although the tablets may not prove as popular in the U.S. as they have been in less developed territories, 20 percent of children in this country don't have internet at home. DataWind thinks introducing devices like the Aakash 2 will enable those without access to internet to finally access the Web.

DataWind previously launched the PocketSurfer, an enlarged smartphone that was designed purely to access the Web with an annual subsidized data connection.

126 - Scrap Aakash to save the government from embarrassment - DNA

16th May 2013

Scrap Aakash to save the government from embarrassment
Arvind Kumar

A year ago, many newspapers reported that Aakash, Kapil Sibal’s low-cost tablet computer, was a failure but the government was launching Aakash 2. Now, the government has announced its plan to launch Aakash 3 despite the failure of the production of Aakash 2.

After repeatedly promising for more than a year that the tablets would be delivered by “next month,” the vendor now claims to have completed delivery, but many students who paid for the tablet more than a year ago are yet to see the device.

Now, the government has sent mixed signals about the fate of the tablet with HRD minister Pallam Raju first hinting about scrapping the project and then backpedalling after his predecessor Sibal intervened and claimed that the project had succeeded. Raju should follow his instincts and end the project so that market forces can take over this space.

Sibal’s claims about the tablet’s success make him look like an Indian version of ‘Baghdad Bob’ who gained notoriety for his telecasts declaring victory against American troops even as other television broadcasts showed the Iraqi army facing defeat.

This is not the first time the government has failed in the technology industry. During the license-raj era when the government monopolized the telecom sector, it made no new innovation in communication technology but only created waiting lists for its customers.

Instead of learning from these mistakes, Sibal has rushed in with his ill-conceived idea of manufacturing computers and the only new contribution he has made to the computer industry is the waiting list. His device itself has turned out to be nothing more than a working model of an assembled computer.

Business is a brutal field where more than half of all ventures fail within the first five years. This number is much higher in the technology sector where change is rapid and prices dramatically collapse within days as recent technological advances quickly become obsolete.

In the system of unfettered free enterprise, losses and risks associated with businesses are contained by those who voluntarily take the risks.

In the case of governments, they are socialized and impact everyone. That is why governments must stay away from the field of business. Governments are also less competent than the private sector and it is inherent in their nature to fail. Even in wealthier countries where governments are more efficient than in India, the private sector is even more efficient and provides similar services at lower costs.

Apart from creating inefficiencies, the mixture of politics and business is a recipe for crony capitalism. While crony capitalism is a problem no matter how the mixture is created, the entry of politicians into the field of business causes far greater damage than the case of smart business owners joining politics as politicians tend to inject the country’s politics into the industry.

Raju should scrap the Aakash venture instead of persisting with the failed project. With his experience working in the technology sector, he is probably more realistic than politicians who believe in using the unlimited powers of the government to make new inventions that change the world. Governments never succeed in their efforts but only appoint parliamentary committees to explain their failures by blaming others. Raju must not appoint any commission of inquiry to investigate the failure of the Aakash venture as that would add insult to injury. Instead, he should move on after pulling out of this project and it will enhance his reputation.

The author is an expert on technology and economic issues. Views expressed are personal.

122 - THIS INNOVATION HAS LED NOWHERE - OPED

THIS INNOVATION HAS LED NOWHERE

Tuesday, 09 April 2013 | Satish Jha | in Oped

India can make a cheap tablet provided it sets up a programme to do so, creates a $250 million research and development budget, and gets on board a global team with a proven track record of creating products for the future

Aakash, India’s low cost computer for education, is back in the news again. The new Union Minister for Human Resource Development revaluating it and the former Ministers continuing to swear by it, has added a new dimension to India’s ambition to claim a turf that has eluded it for over a decade. Going by the tale of Aakash being spun during all of UPA2, there seems to be little interest in understanding the real issues around it, whether by the Union Government, academics or the media.

From Simputer to Mobilis to Saakshat to Aakash, India’s pursuit of a low-cost device has cost it dear, with little learning. India has been claiming since 2006 that it will make the  world’s lowest priced computer. The first attempt was to make a $10 laptop that led to showcasing a pen drive 125 times larger than normal 1cm x 2.5cm, and the world laughed at us into its oblivion. That was when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had promised to deliver an affordable and rugged laptop for the poor in villages for $100. As it became clear that the MIT’s laptop would cost Rs15,000 in India, going by the principle of producing it at a 10th of the cost of the MIT product, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry declared that they would produce a Rs1,500 laptop in three months.

That was in 2009. The rupee was strong then and Rs1,500 translated into $35. Deadline after deadline, announcement following announcement, it took the Ministry over a year to showcase a tablet, not a laptop, that was named Saakshat. It was on every television screen, on the front pages around the world. Yet again, several deadlines were missed, and 27 months after the initial promise, the Ministry showcased the second computer. Its specifications were diluted way beyond the promise to the extent that it had to be renamed. The new name was Aakash.

The din continued, and the parallel noise that it was a dud became so loud that the Union Human Resource Development Ministry had little choice other than to announce Aakash2. Now, it’s been another 12 months since that was announced, and India has not managed to put 1,00,000 Aakash tablets in the hands of students.

In Aakash, India’s aspirations to prove its technological prowess have hit the reality on the ground that India has neither a technological ecosystem capable of designing and manufacturing a laptop that is cheaper than what is offered by the rest of the world, nor an ability to create new technologies that can bring the cost of the product down.

The IITs are teaching institutions but they have no track record of creating cutting-edge technologies or products. So, when established IITs declined to toe the Human Resource Development Ministry line, the Ministry decided to create a new IIT with the most important purpose of producing the low-cost computers. It’s a bit like laying the foundation of the kitchen when the guests have arrived for dinner.

When the new IIT could not deliver, the Ministry managed to rope in older IITs that had wised up a bit by now and wanted to take a shot at the project. They were the same folks who had realised the limitations and could not produce even the right specifications in several years. No matter what they did, a workable computing power could not be packed into a tablet for $35.

Governments are experts in doling out subsidies. So it was decided that they could buy what worked at a higher price of $50 from China, and distribute with a subsidy at Rs1,500. The numbers looked different every time since the planning never took into account foreign exchange fluctuations. The vendor cannot offer anything because the Ministry’s specifications will not work and, in any case, will cost more. The Ministry is inflexible on price, and even China cannot produce a cheaper device for India to claim its own.

Why is it that India does not realise that it has made a laughing stock of itself among those who understand these things? It has little to do with what can be done. There are things that are possible, and there are things we can aspire for and even achieve — like putting man on the moon. Just that the man on the moon project was backed by the technological prowess, a resolve and the resources required to make it happen.

India can make a cheap tablet provided it sets up a programme to do so, creates a $250 million research & development budget, imagines and understands how education can be delivered over the next decade, gets a global team with a proven track record of creating products for the future — regardless of the team’s nationality, and learns what product creation process is all about. Perhaps then — and perhaps only then — will the next decade see the country create something that the world may find acceptable.

112 - Aakash-2 to come loaded with apps, courtesy IIT-Bombay - Business Standard

31st Dec 2012

Shivani Shinde  |  Mumbai  December 31, 2012 Last Updated at 01:26 IST

Aakash-2 to come loaded with apps, courtesy IIT-Bombay

A few months ago, the Marathwada Institute of Technology, Aurangabad, got in touch with the Spoken Tutorial team at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B). The former had been approached by a company, which wanted to hire students specialising in PHP (a language designed to produce web pages).

The institute did not have the course in its syllabus. “They approached the Spoken Tutorial team. More than 30 students from the college took the course and of these, six were hired,” said Kannan M Moudgalya, a professor at IIT-B.

Spoken Tutorial is an audio-video tutorial that explains an activity performed on a computer, with an expert explaining the working of the software by demonstrating it on the screen. This is now available on Aakash-2 tablets.

The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has said 100,000 tablets are expected to be delivered to engineering institutes by the end of March 2013. IIT-B is making sure that education applications are made available to students through these tablets. Over 200 teachers and students have been working for the last six months to port all projects that have been developed under the National Mission on Education through ICT over the last three years on Aakash-2.

COMING OF AGE

Aakash-1 was launched last year This April, IIT-B was given the Aakash-2 project’s responsibility Spoken Tutorial; Talk to a Teacher; e-Yantra systems; virtual labs; educational animations, free and open source software for science and engineering; and development of design content are among applications to be available on the tablet

Spoken Tutorial; Talk to a Teacher; e-Yantra systems; virtual labs; educational animations, free and open source software for science and engineering; and development of design content are among the many applications being made available on the tablet.

One of the most ambitious project of MHRD, Aakash tablets are supposed to change the way education is being delivered in India. So far, 20,000 Aakash (including Aakash 1 and 2) have been distributed to engineering students.

“By the end of March, the government would have procured 100,000 tablets. Of these, 40 tablets each will be given to 250 colleges. We have trained around 12,000 teachers across these colleges on the use of Aakash,” said professor Deepak Phatak, head of the project at IIT-B.

Aakash-1 was launched by MHRD in October 2011. In April 2012, IIT-B was given the responsibility of the project. “When we came on board, the first thing we asked for was upgrade in the hardware,” added Phatak. He is hopeful that the subsequent versions — Aakash 3 and 4 — would have higher processor speed.

Aakash-3 is also likely be equipped with a SIM slot. About 5 million Aakash-3 tablets are expected to be rolled out in the next phase, the global tender for which may be floated in February. Other than creating applications for Aakash, IIT-B has gone a step ahead and built a Linux operating system for the tablet. The Aakash-3 would have a faster processor and support both Linux and Android.

These applications will enable a student or a teacher to access courses developed by IIT-B for free. For instance, Spoken Tutorial allows a student to take tutorials remotely, without help. So far, 1,000 tutorials have been created on various topics, of which 350 are originals. Till date, 100,000 students have accessed these tutorials. “While we create tutorials in English, we are also dubbing them into regional languages. Our aim is to have all tutorials in 32 languages mentioned in the Constitution of India recognises,” said Moudgalya.

Similarly, the Industrial Design Centre at IIT-B has created 100 courses--50 are available online. “So far, we have 10,000 page views per day and 700 people visit the website per day. The courses have been made in such a way that a student can understand concepts and process of 2D animations and other design aspects. All these are available on Aakash-2 as well,” said professor Ravi Poovaiah.

IIT-B is also making sure that the connect between the teacher and student is not lost in a computerised teaching environment. For this, IIT-B has developed an app called Clicker, which allows the teacher to see if the concept that has been taught is understood by taking automated quiz in every 30 minute of a lecture. This application also allows teachers to track a student’s progress.

Till date, Aakash tablets have been provided to engineering students only. IIT-B, however, will soon carry out pilot projects in schools. At present, IIT-B has digitised SSC maths and science syllabi from ninth to 12 standards. "We have identified a school in Pandharpur in Maharashtra and Bhikangao, a town in Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh. We are also running a pilot of creating solar chargers for these tablets to be used in schools were electricity is not regular," said Phatak.

107 - Aakash 2 price disclosed, now available to students at Rs. 1,130

15th Nov 2012

Aakash 2 price disclosed, now available to students at Rs. 1,130

By Staff on November 15, 2012

The Aakash 2 price has been declared, and it will been made available to students from all walks of life at a reasonably affordable cost. DataWind has designed, developed and manufactured the device, under the HRD ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, and will be supplying it to students of IIT Bombay.

Before the gadget was launched, a two-day workshop was conducted by representatives of IIT Bombay for the teaching faculties of various engineering colleges in India. The Mumbai-based institute used the slate, which runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, as a platform for developing applications that revolve around 3D-modelling, C++ programming, remote and collaborative training applications, robotic control and live assessment tools.

As compared to the resistive screen of its predecessor, the latest version of the tablet carries on it a 7-inch multi-touch capacitive display, sporting a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. It is powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor that delivers better performance as compared to the original slate.

Besides providing an internal memory of 4GB that is expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card, the Aakash 2 also offers 512MB of RAM. The tablet exhibits a front-facing VGA camera for face to face calling and possesses in-built Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing instant Internet access. The battery of this slab allows up to 3 hours of usage on a single charge, the company claims.

With an ultimate goal to enable all 220 million students across India access to low cost devices, the company intends to supply 100,000 units of the gadget to IIT Bombay, which in turn will distribute them to university, college and engineering students.

Students can purchase the Aakash 2 at a price of Rs. 1,130. On the other hand, DataWind’s website is selling it commercially in the form of the UbiSlate 7Ci for a higher price. The company looks forward to introducing in the market, many more affordable Internet devices that will be accessible to people hailing from every corner of society.

Below is a sneak peak at the specifications:

CPU: 1GHz Cortex A8 processor
Operating System: Android Ice Cream Sandwich
Display: 7-inch multi-touch capacitive screen
Resolution: 800 x 480
Camera: VGA front-facing camera
Memory: 4GB flash memory and 512MB RAM
Network: Wi-Fi b/g/n
Battery Life: Up to 180 minutes (claimed)

103 - India gets $25 Android tablet

12th Nov 2012

India gets $25 Android tablet

British Aakash 2 will reach millions of students, thanks to subsidies

By Phil Muncaster, 12th November 2012

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The long-awaited low cost Aakash 2 tablet from UK firm Datawind has finally been officially launched in India, complete with several new hardware enhancements which the government will be hoping helps spur student learning.

The Aakash 2, which is commercially available as the UbiSlate 7Ci for Rs 3,500 ($US64), is costing the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) Rs 2,263 ($US43), although government subsidies will put the price charged to students at just Rs 1,130($US24.65).

The original Aakash was launched around a year ago, but the low-spec, Android 2.2-based device received a largely hostile reception.

Things went from bad to worse for the government’s ambitious IT project when the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, which had been running the show at a regional level, fell out with Datawind, stalling shipments.

Things came back on track in March this year after IIT-Bombay took over and struck a deal soon after for 100,000 of the new tablets.

The Aakash 2 will feature a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor processor and a 7in, capacitive, 800x480 display. The Android 4.0-based device features 512MB RAM and internal memory of 4GB, which is expandable up to 32GB using a micro SD card, according to IBNLive.

Battery life is around four hours and there’s also a front-facing camera.

Indian president Pranab Mukherjee launched the tablet, highlighting the importance the government is attaching to the ambitious IT project which aims to put computing devices in the hands of hundreds of millions of students over the coming five years. ®

96 - The Aakash is back, and shines in sneak peeks - Hindustan Times

19th September 2012

The Aakash is back, and shines in sneak peeks

Yashwant Raj, Hindustan Times

Washington, September 19, 2012

The world’s cheapest tablet has finally come together as planned, perhaps even better. And priced at $35 (about Rs. 1,960) , Aakash 2 appears ready to start a revolution. Wait for it. Aakash 2 is likely to be launched early October, close to the first anniversary of its predecessor, but some US tech experts got a sneak peek. Needless to say, they loved it.

“I want this device,” wrote Christopher Peri, the highly influential writer for Venture Beat, a leading technology blog, in a review of Aakash 2 on Tuesday.

“World changing indeed,” is how Forbes magazine’s technology contributor Alice Truong ended her review of the device.

Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, which makes Aakash 2, is thrilled with the reviews, especially after the pasting he got for the Aakash 1, which was panned as too slow, with too many rough edges: far from the dream device India was waiting for. Only 8,000 of the originally contracted 100,000 units shipped.

Tuli said he didn't want or arrange these pre-launch reviews.  That was done by Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian American technology entrepreneur and academic.

“Vivek jumped the gun,” Tuli said in a telephone interview.

Wadhwa had become an instant fan of the device the time he first tried it. “It has the potential of revolutionising India,” he gushed, “putting millions of Indians on the Net instantly.”

But he also feared for the future of Aakash 2. “Indians have an inferiority complex about their ability to produce anything of this standard and they would have finished off the device by rubbishing it,” he said.

So his strategy of getting it tested by leading experts in the US. If the reviews were good, Indian reviewers and critics would look silly going the other way.

The reviews have been outstanding so far. And Wadhwa might have indeed saved the device from a premature demise. For now, the real challenge lies ahead.

The WiFi-only version will cost the government $41, and will be sold to students at a subsidised $35.

A version with a SIM slot, called UbiSlate, will be available commercially for around $63. DataWind has already been able to line up 3.5 million bookings.

Aakash 2 was built in close technological cooperation with IIT Bombay - “really sharp people,” said Tuli - while Aakash 1 was made with IIT Rajasthan.

The current order-book is 100,000 units. Eventually, the government plans to buy 5 million units, which could drive prices down to sub-$20 levels, Tuli said.

“The world of cheap tablets is not coming, it’s here,” wrote Peri.

“Now we just need to sit back and watch the world change again — just as it did when cheap smartphones hit the market,” Peri added.

93 - Sibal to present Modi an Aakash-2 tablet on Sept 22

7th Sept 2012

Sibal to present Modi an Aakash-2 tablet on Sept 22

07 Sep, 2012 | by Anuradha Shetty 

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi may well be among the first to lay his hands on the upgraded version of the Aakash tablet, even as scores around the country await its launch. If latest reports are to be believed, on September 22, Union Minister Kapil Sibal will be presenting the Aakash-2 tablet to Modi on a public platform in the state. The premise, however, is not a smooth one.  Yesterday, as part of its campaigning ahead of the Assembly elections, Congress announced that it would distribute free laptops to students if they were voted to power. Critical of this, Modi took a dig at Congress and said, "Kash (If only) this Aakash tablet could land on earth, then the lie (promise of free laptops by state Congress) they (Congress) are spreading now would hold some weight." Modi went on to accuse the Centre of 'dragging its feet' on the Aakash tablet distribution. Modi asserted that the Centre failed to deliver on its much-hyped commitment. Sibal to present Aakash-2 to Modi on September 22 Modi's comments did not go down too well with Sibal and the latter was quoted as saying, "I am surprised at Narendrabhai's statement. This is such a venture that all over the world, it is being talked about but not so in Gujarat because we think about children 24x7. But in Modi's Gujarat what happened to the future of the children. He is maintaining silence since 2002...Modi may be rich in politics but is poor at heart. In the next five to seven years, each child will have the Aakash tablet." It is on this premise that Sibal decided to present the Aakash-2 to Modi on a public platform. Clearly, Sibal sees this as the way to prod Modi to take back his statement on the Aakash-2 tablet.  That Sibal will deliver on that is something only time will tell. Meanwhile, the launch date of the Aakash-2 tablet is yet to be known. The delays, criticism, controversies have been constant, hindering India in helping it realise its dream of low-cost computing. A lot rests of what the government plans to deliver, courtesy the Aakash-2. On paper, nothing should go wrong for the tablet. Talks about Android v4.0 (ICS) being included in Aakash 2 started in April, when Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind stated in an email that the Aakash 2 tablet will have 2GB flash storage, an 800MHz processor and 256MB RAM, which should be enough to handle ICS.  The Aakash 2 is a significant upgrade over the original Aakash tablet. The initial version of the tablet had a 7-inch resistive touchscreen, which struggled to respond to touch. It ran Android v2.2 on a 366MHz processor, based on an older ARM architecture. The Aakash 2 tablet is likely to be replaced by a successor, which will have a dual-core Cortex - A9 processor by the end of this year.  Only recently, there were also reports quoting Keith Liu, Business Development Director for Mobile Internet Digital Home division at Lenovo across Asia Pacific & Latin America regions as saying it is difficult to have a tablet offering a great user experience at a price as that proposed for India’s dream tablet, i.e., Rs 2,276 ($41).