AAKASH TABLET GETS 3 LAKH PRE-BOOKING ORDERS

The world's cheapest tablet, Aakash,
costing about Rs 3,000, has received about 3 lakh pre-launch bookings for its commercial version that goes on sale later next month.
A subsidised model of this tablet, made by UK-based Datawind, is already being
distributed free in schools and colleges. Aakash's retail
bookings exceed India's estimated 250,000 tablet PC
market, dominated by Apple, Samsung and Reliance.
"The bookings have been done without any money
received in advance. We have identified an operator
for a data plan at Rs 99 a month," said Datawind
CEO Suneet Singh Tuli, who claimed the data
streaming technology offered by his company could
make internet access costs virtually free.
"We hope to make internet free on our devices with
that technology." Tuli is experimenting with a
technology that can stream a 700MB file compressed
into a 25MB on a tablet. Aircel could be the likely
operator, said executives of the two companies,
requesting anonymity.
Datawind has supplied about 10,000 tablets to the
government's National Mission for Education at a price
of Rs 2,250. The devices are being used by students
from colleges such as the IITs, RECs, BITS Pilani,
Teri University and others.
Aakash, in its next version, will be upgraded with a
capacitive touch screen and a processor with double
the speed. Datawind plans to supply an attachableRs
400 keyboard, turning the device into PC-lookalike at
Rs 3,400.
The government is also considering a proposal to
procure the next lot, called Aakash 2, with a faster
700 MHz processor, albeit at the same price. Tuli says
there have been invitations from other nations for
their digital inclusion programs, seeing India's success.
"The governments of Mexico, Sri Lanka, Egypt,
Thailand, Brazil, Bangladesh have requested us to
participate in programs similar to India. None, though
have come out with tenders for supply of low cost
devices as of now," Tuli said. KPMG's telecom head
Jaideep Ghosh, however, says that the low-cost
tablet success might not be as specatcular as that of
the mobile handsets.
"About 185 million new handsets being sold in India
this year. But the number of tablets to be sold in a
year would be in the range of 250,000 to 500,000
units." The low price is attractive only for students
and the youth, who are aspiring to buy new products,
he said.