1.4 Million People Have 'Preordered' India's Aakash Tablet
However, no money has actually changed hands just yet...
The launch of India's ultra-cheap 60 dollar Aakash tablet is nearly upon us, and if pre-orders registrations are any indication, it's going to sell like crazy. The Times of India is reporting that 1.4 million preorder 'bookings' have occurred in the two weeks since the device was offered at a small discount of approximately $50. Based on this apparent strong demand, UK-based Aakash manufacturer Datawind have announced intent to open 3 new factories in India -in the cities of Cochin, Noida and Hyderabad - to meet it. "We never expected such a high response from both corporate and individual buyers." said Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli. "We plan to supply 70,000-75,000 units per day once the factories are in place by April."
That's an amazing commitment, and for the people those factories will employ, a virtual godsend. However, the demand is at this time purely theoretical. "We are not accepting cash for bookings currently, as we want to sort out supply issues", Tuli said. As a result, these preorders are not currency transactions, just 'bookings", essentially consumers claiming a place in line to ensure they won't get sniped when it launches. So no money has exchanged hands, the company is still trying to sort out supply issues, and the Aakash is still months away from launch. As impressive as these preorders numbers are, the real test will come when it's time for the consumer to actually part with their money, assuming that Datawind manages to successfully meet current production quotas. It is therefore probably wise to hold off on celebrating the factory groundbreaking for the time being.
With a 7-inch 800x480 pixel display, 256 MB of RAM, 2 GB of NAND flash storage and a 366 MHz Connexant processor the dirt cheap Aakash tablet is incredibly underpowered by the standards of the developed world, and would likely never sell in the developed world. But for a nation beset by immense poverty and in dire need of expanded educational opportunities and access to the Internet for its 1 billion citizens, it's a much-needed affordable bit of tech that, if successfully delivered, will change lives.
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It's really not that much when you consider the population of India...
This should be on a TED talk show
I would buy one, just to check it out, and 50-60 dollars aint a bad price.
It looks like those cheap Chinese 7'' tablets with WM8650 processor from VIA and at almost the same price. Nothing new here. What I would like to do is congratulate the Indian government for making this tablet and making it in India.
Why I do that? Let's take my country for example, Greece. 4 or 5 years ago (when we had money - yeah, right...) the government decided to give free laptops to certain students. They did that by giving a check of 400 euros to every family. The result was ALL netbooks/laptops in the country gone from let's say 250 euros to a minimum of 400 euros + a gift card over night. The retailers fill their pockets with government money, and NO Greek company had the opportunity to acquire expertise and make a name taking advantage of that program. No new jobs, no anything. Just retailers with their pockets full back then and a padlock at the door today.
If they put a faster processor, it might be worth it. It sounds too slow even at the low budget price to be worth it.
Aakash has been renamed Ubislate 7. Ubislate 7+ is coming in Feb with a 700MHz processor and a few other improvements for just $10 more.
Good lord thats worse than the Droid processor!
@DK: The Ubislate 7+ is like the droid, little faster, now worth its cost.
@yannigr
I must point out that the former right wing government was ideologically blocked and were unable on a personal level to even consider using the government ability to purchase in bulk.
That is why it failed in Greece, the conservatives couldn’t and wouldn’t purchase in bulk but instead, and possibly this was the goal all along, chose the wurst option which was simply send checks out so that what did happen would happen which is that the retailers raised prices and the money ended up in the sellers pocket instead of staying in the government which was possibly the plan all along.
damn it!!! India is not a country that's poverty stricken!! It's filled with misers who value money unlike others who are "Developed" that rock in poverty and indebtedness.. jerks..
damn it!!! India is not a country that's poverty stricken!! It's filled with misers who value money unlike others who are "Developed" that rock in poverty and indebtedness.. jerks..
According to the CIA world fact book India has a per capita GDP of about $3,500 putting it in 162nd position in the world. Sorry, but I'd call that a 'poor' country.
According to the CIA world fact book India has a per capita GDP of about $3,500 putting it in 162nd position in the world. Sorry, but I'd call that a 'poor' country.
I heard that living cost is also very low there. GDP may not be a good measure of poverty . IMHO India will be at ~ 110th.
True, poverty & illiteracy is rampant. But it's also the 4th largest economy. Plus it's a fact that nearly one-fifth of the technologists in the US (engineers, scientists in IT, NASA, etc) were educated in India. Last but not the least, while the recession has largely crippled all the "developed" nations, India remains immune to it. I know this has nothing to do with the article but just wanted to clear that all is not in the drain & the article needn't be so condescending.
Coming back to the tablet, the whole initiative will be a failure if cellular connectivity is not improved or the number of public wi-fi areas is not increased.
@freggo, get you facts straight. First of all India is 129th in the per capita GDP ranking. I know no where near the US at 7th. But then comparing the total population of the 2 countries and the fact that most of the US money is in the pockets of 1% population sitting at the top of fortune 500 companies and investment banks, nothing much to brag about for an average US citizen. They spend more than they earn and make credit card companies richer is a fact.
If it's 60 dollars it must be extremely crappy device or they are building it at loss. You can't get even a decent phone with that let alone tablet.
If it's 60 dollars it must be extremely crappy device or they are building it at loss. You can't get even a decent phone with that let alone tablet.
I would go with the former.
In my language "Aakash" means "You are taking a big dump" or just "You $h1t"
BTW What's so developed about the "Developed world"?
It looks like those cheap Chinese 7'' tablets with WM8650 processor from VIA and at almost the same price. Nothing new here. What I would like to do is congratulate the Indian government for making this tablet and making it in India.Why I do that? Let's take my country for example, Greece. 4 or 5 years ago (when we had money - yeah, right...) the government decided to give free laptops to certain students. They did that by giving a check of 400 euros to every family. The result was ALL netbooks/laptops in the country gone from let's say 250 euros to a minimum of 400 euros + a gift card over night. The retailers fill their pockets with government money, and NO Greek company had the opportunity to acquire expertise and make a name taking advantage of that program. No new jobs, no anything. Just retailers with their pockets full back then and a padlock at the door today.
Byzantine izz Great!
if these things can display a book, it would be a great e reader, i dont need fancy page turning crap, i just need something i can bring with me that is cheap as hell, and can display a jpeg/png image.
This beats OLPC. I wonder what Negroponte thinks about it.
i can assure every over here that this device works very well atleast in terms of video , music and document editing , and browsing .
and this device is built for that purpose only . its a educational device and not an entertainment device.
and people calling it cheap , dirt , worthless , please can you ask any top manufacturer to give the same specs at the same price . they will certainly have sweat coming out of their asses .
Someone above said that these sorts of devices are not going to be successful in the "underdeveloped" world until internet connectivity is increased. I totally agree with that.
these specs are better than my 266mhz 32meg ram 3.2 gig hard drive from 97.
I could actually see the use of a cheap tablet like that, even though it's underpowered. It's a portable screen that can be used for thin client-like applications
Does this mean when they call tech support, they get someone in the U.S.? /runs away laughing
Does this mean when they call tech support, they get someone in the U.S.? /runs away laughing
Lololololol. Good comment is good.
It would've been nice if a country in Africa had done something like this.
The points about internet are good. For sure, there are plenty of parts of the third world which have good Wifi, but most of the people who live in those areas are well off and would not want a 60 dollar tablet. For example, I teach at a high school in Guatemala. We have Wifi, but most of our students have Iphones and Ipads. I doubt any of them would want a 60 dollar tablet, although I suppose some of the people who clean and cook at the school might. Once you get out of the affluent neighborhoods though, its hard to imagine who would be a buyer of this.
ok people, first about India:
It's bloody complex. A majority are poor, the city dwellers and landlords in the villages are well off. However, because the country in general has been poor for a long time, it's built-in to people to put survival ahead of luxuries. Tablets for most here are an extravagance. Plus, while cellular connectivity is good, Wi-fi and the internet are not so good. Wifi is common in cities, but rare in general.
So now, will it work? It can, really. Not every student can afford an ipad. Apple sells them for more here. Most people here would prefer a laptop/desktop over a tablet, or even a smartphone, because they're more affordable, have been tried and tested, and look like more than a toy. Thus the Ubislate 7 (Aakash 2) has a lot of scope, it's cheap and as good as an ipod touch (except the screen), has Wi-fi and is GPRS enabled, one can use a 3G dongle to extend connectivity as well.
And there's a difference b/w pre-ordering and booking, Ross! I know you make an amused note about this, but here it's quite common to "book" a car, for example. they've just done the same thing.
And Aakash means 'sky', btw.
Another great thing that i foresee happening is that a lot of budding Android developers will get an inexpensive opportunity to experiment with their ideas.
for students it priced only 30$-35$
isn't that a great deal
The specs suck!!!!
India is not a poor country it can be called as country with corroupt political system indeed,,,,,,,
As per recent updates and news "If u put the world aise and India on other,than India has more capital stake in Swiss Bank (Black Money aka. Money Stolen from citinzens of India now called as poor),,,,
@freggo, get you facts straight. First of all India is 129th in the per capita GDP ranking. I know no where near the US at 7th. But then comparing the total population of the 2 countries and the fact that most of the US money is in the pockets of 1% population sitting at the top of fortune 500 companies and investment banks, nothing much to brag about for an average US citizen. They spend more than they earn and make credit card companies richer is a fact.
Actually get your facts right. India is 138th in nominal GDP per Capita. You are referring to the PPP adjustment which indicates that the price of variable regional dependent services is 3 times cheaper than in the US. Even still the average Indian can afford roughly 10 times less regional purchasing power than the average American. More than half the country lives on less than $2 a day (after ppp adjustment). Learn some economics b4 you start misquoting wikipedia dude. Also, wealth in the United States is fairly well distributed when compared to a country like India (where there is almost no middle class). Just b/c we aren't some tiny homogenous country like Sweden or Norway, or have a near-perfect globalized economy like Germany to pay for universal health care doesn't mean things aren't set up pretty darn well here when in comparison to the rest of the world.