India's New $35 Tablet to Get Upgrades Ahead of Launch

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

More bang for the buck.

India's $35 tablet caused quite the fuss when it was announced two years ago and now the little slate is in the news again, this time because of upgrades it's expected to get in the next few weeks. According to IDG (via ComputerWorld), the 7-inch budget tablet will get Android 4.0 as well as a hardware upgrade before the second version launches in the next few weeks.

The original Aakash tablet boasted a 7-inch display as well as an ARM 11 processor, 256MB or RAM, 2GB of storage (up to 32GB of external storage), Wi-Fi, USB connectivity and Android 2.2. The new Aakash 2 will supposedly pack a 7-inch capacitive multitouch screen and a faster single-core, 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of RAM and 2GB of internal storage. The tablet is expected to received further hardware upgrades as component prices drop (there's talk of dual-core A9 CPUs by year's end) and IDG cites Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli as saying the device will ship with Android 2.3 but will be upgraded to Android 4.0 six to eight weeks after launch.

According to IDG, Tuli said the cost of the tablet is $45 but that that's being brought down to $35 thanks to subsidies from the Indian government, which has budgeted for 5 million units for the fiscal year started April 1.

Jane McEntegart
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blazorthon
    ... That $35 tablet has better hardware than my old Droid (Samsung Transform). I need a new Droid.
    Reply
  • Hazbot
    That's cool and all but would you mind getting a different picture for the article? That guys expression is terrifying!
    Reply
  • alyoshka
    ^ Lol..... yeah but the guys cool.....
    Reply
  • alyoshka
    Well, these tabs are being used for Data and Census updates by the Government itself.... :) Haven't seen a single kid in any rural school use it until now.
    You find most of the Grads who have just been hired by the local govt. to collect data from the people house to house going around with these. And you know what, they still have One tab to cater for over a million people..... It is the laugh of the century if I was to see it from the eIndia POV. Where you can buy tea off the internet to a Bugatti , we still lack any sort of infrastructure to actually make these so called fancy gadgets useful at the grass root level.
    Even after collecting all the data, they do end up printing it on paper for the different departments of the govt. since most of them still work on the file system.
    My personal experience with the Dept. of Telecom , New Delhi , has been and I'd like to translate and quote the Director General Telecom's words here
    " Sir, you may keep harping about us going all hi-tech and dishing out all the e-services that we do to the people, but, sadly, in this department, we still function only on printed paper. We have PC's to work on and networks to handle the data, but, when it come's to working or functioning of the department, we strictly believe only in paper prints and hard copies. You can complete all the formalities online, but, they will not be held valid until you provide a printed copy of everything to us."

    And believe me, the time it takes to get one piece of paper to move from one level to another is like going around the world on a camel and still being faster.

    So all the crap about it being a 35 to 45 $ tab is really ..... dunno....like a bollywood movie.... nothing real all in the head.
    Reply
  • invlem
    Damn, I'd kill for one of these, 35$, that would make the best XBMC remote ever!
    Reply
  • whysobluepandabear
    And yet, the iPad costs how much?
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Soo...a $35 tablet will get ICS before most $200-$300 mobile phones? *facepalm*
    Reply
  • amigafan
    For $35 you get a tablet with a touch screen, battery etc. Makes man wonder if that $35 Raspberry Pi is worth its price :/
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    amigafanFor $35 you get a tablet with a touch screen, battery etc. Makes man wonder if that $35 Raspberry Pi is worth its price
    It's not. It has had competition that beats it in performance for a while, but it's competition hasn't been given quite as much attention.

    JOSHSKORNSoo...a $35 tablet will get ICS before most $200-$300 mobile phones? *facepalm*
    To be fair, this tablet was supposed to have 2.2, not 4.0 in it. That they changed their minds at practically the last minute kinda makes a difference. Besides, most of the Android phones never got updated as much and as often as they should be. If you truly care, there's always the option of doing it yourself.
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    I'd buy a tablet like that for that price, probably double that (basically as a pdf viewer but still waiting to find a sub 100 buck tablet with expandable memory slot, and open droid not liek the archos limited playground... but yea thats abotu all i want shoudl be doable mayeb some will make it to the us for us cheapo people even if there is a 100% markup it'd sell :D
    Reply