World's cheapest tablet 'Aakash' receives 3 lakh pre-launch bookings

 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. 


CHEAPEST DOWNLOAD 

The tablet market is expected to see a price war as Reliance Industries and Bharti Group are also gearing up to offer cheaper data plans on tablets. RIL may slash the cost of data download to as low as Rs 10 per GB on its upcoming Rs 6,000 tablet. Data downloads cost around Rs 100 per GB for most operators now. 

Delhi-based Bharti Group's Beetel is also gearing up. "We were the first to introduce a tablet (Magiq) at Rs 9,999, this year. From January we will be going fullsteam and launch a third version of the tablet," says Vinod Sawhny, chief executive of Beetel Teletech. Samsung India is also launching a third model of the Galaxy Tab next month. 

As per KPMG, Samsung has about 80% share of the market, followed by Apple with 5% share. Reliance Communications' group head for marketing and branding Sanjay Behl said the tablet market has doubled in a year. "Reliance Tab has become the third largest after Apple and Samsung tablets."