Just launched, the $50 Aakash has already sold 1,00,000 tablets from makers Datawind at an all inclusive price of Rs 2250. The government, who commissioned the tablet, has snapped up the first batch of units to redistribute to institutes across the country.
After connecting to over 1000 institutes with high bandwidth wi-fi networks and free web enabled courses, the government will now deliver 10 million tablets to secondary students across the country. The tablets will be distributed state-wise - each state will get 3000 units to begin with.
The target price of the 10 million units is Rs.1750 per unit. Datawind has provided a firm proposal at the Rs. 1750 price point also. For this price you get, a 7" resistive touchscreen, a 366 MHz processor and 2 USB ports. (Read: Full list of features)
The tablet will be available only to post-secondary students through NME-ICT. Datawind will offer a commercial version of the device, called the Ubislate, starting November at an MRP of under Rs.2999 including taxes. The device will have a 1 year warranty. Internet access across mobile networks will be priced at Rs. 99 for 2GB.
At the launch, DataWind displayed a roadmap of the future - the current feature set will come at a lower price, the current price will buy you better features. There will also be a mobile phone version of the device, capacitive screen unit with faster and dual core processors, and a 10-inch screen version.
The low cost tablet has been five and a half years in the making. A year ago, we saw the prototype - then called the Sakshat. NDTV had exclusive access to the prototype and the final build.