India’s Minister of Human Resources & Development, Communications & Information Technology Kapil Sibal Wednesday unveiled a lost-cost Internet access device dubbed the world’s cheapest tablet computer.
The $45 device, named Aakash, is aimed at eliminating digital illiteracy in the country and making available high quality study content to the students. “The rich people in India have access to the digital content, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide,” Sibal said.
The device has been designed, developed and manufactured by a UK-based company Datawind, in partnership with IIT Rajasthan, under the Human Resources & Development Ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT).
The government is buying 100,000 tablets from DataWind at an all-inclusive price of around $45 per unit for distribution among the students and it plans to deliver 10 million tablets to post-secondary students across India. The target price of the 10 million units is around $35.
Datawind established a new production line in Hyderabad specifically for this purpose, making the ultra low-cost tablet to be the first indigenously designed and manufactured tablet.
“Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and Internet access. Working with IIT Rajasthan, and NME-ICT, we’ve created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and Internet access to the masses. This is not only a concept that applies to India, but has ignited the imagination of governments around the world. The Aakash is proudly made in India, and is destined to revolutionize computing and Internet access for the world,” Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said.
The Aakash is a 7” Android 2.2 (Froyo) touch screen tablet that has an HD video co-processor for a high-quality multimedia experience and core graphics accelerator for faster application support. It also has DataWind’s UbiSurfer browser, based on 18 international patents. The UbiSurfer browser accelerates web pages by factors of 10x to 30x, allowing for a web experience of unrivaled speed, the company claims.
Intended for students, the Aakash tablet can be used as an Ebook reader, for access to online streaming course material and web based research. The device also offers high quality web browsing, social networking, instant messaging, multimedia, games and thousands of applications. Instant messaging and social networking on the device are delivered through the Nimbuzz application.
The device connects to the web via Wi-Fi and also has support for optional 3G modems. It also has two full-sized USB ports which allows the use of pen-drives, eternal keyboards, web-cams, dongles, and other peripherals.
“Pen drives are a common medium for storing and sharing content in India. They are even used by people that are not computer savvy, for access to music and videos. We felt it was very important to include full sized USB ports allowing regular pen-drives to be plugged-in,” said Tuli.
The device also comes with a leather keyboard case, which not only protects the device but also has an integrated keyboard, allowing fast typing and conversion of the device to a small notebook.
Product Specifications:
Hardware:
- Processor: 366 Mhz Connexant with Graphics accelerator and HD Video co-processor & graphics accelerator
- Memory (RAM): 256MB RAM / Storage (Internal): 2GB Flash
- Storage (External): 2GB card included. Expandable up to 32GB Supported
- Peripherals (USB2.0 ports, number): 2 Standard USB port
- Audio out: 3.5mm jack / Audio in: 3.5mm jack
- Display and Resolution: 7” display with 800×480 pixel resolution
- Input Devices: Resistive touch screen
- Connectivity and Networking: GPRS and WiFi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g
- Power and Battery: Up to 180 minutes on battery. AC adapter 200-240 volt range.
Software:
- OS: Android 2.2
- Document Rendering
- Supported Document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP
- PDF viewer, Text editor
- Multimedia and Image Display
- Image viewer supported formats: PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF
- Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA
- Supported video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV
- Communication and Internet
- Web browser – Standards Compliance: xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant
- Separate application for online YouTube video
- Nimbuzz software
- Safety and other standards compliance
- CE certification / RoHS certification
- Additional Web Browser: UbiSurfer-Browser with compression/acceleration and IE8 rendering.
Pricing Information:
The Aakash tablet will only be available to post-secondary students through the NME-ICT but DataWind will offer a commercial version, called the UbiSlate, starting late November at a Maximum Retail Price of under $60.92 (inclusive of all duties and taxes), including 12 months of warranty.
The price difference between the Aakash and UbiSlate is because the commercially available product will include a cellular modem, allowing it to deliver web access anywhere there is a cellular connectivity, and also to function as a mobile phone.
Tablet Comparison:
