Aakash tablet price to come down to Rs1900 soon: Sibal

NEW DELHI: Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said that the price of Aakash tablet will soon come down to $ 35 (about Rs 1,900 approximately) from $49 at present. 

"Aakash is a tablet which at the moment costs $49. It will come down to $35 very soon. It has all the amenities of any modern tablet," Sibal said at Reverse Buyer Seller Meet (RBSM) here organised by Telecom Equipment and Service Export Promotion Council. 

The Minister added that next version of the tablet will also have Skype, an application used for making voice calls using Internet connection and does not necessarily require a SIM. 

"It performs the same function as a $150 tablet," Sibal said, adding that Aakash is kind of product that two- third population of world needs as they don't have enough resources to buy tablet costing $150. 

UN endorses India’s Aakash outreach

WASHINGTON: India's push to digitally empower millions of its poor students with lowcost , government-subsidized , internet-enabled tablets won UN endorsement on Wednesday despite raging controversy and misgivings on the provenance and pricing of the device.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon personally approved the Indian effort at the UN Headquarters where dozens of envoys from across the world gathered for a peek at the Aakash II device that its makers (British-Canadian-Indian company Datawind) and chief patron (Government of India) say will revolutionize education and commerce.

Aakash 2 Specification, Features

The price details for the Aakash 2 educational tablet have been unveiled and based on the information provided, it is expected to be available for Rs. 1,130. Compared to its predecessor, the device is equipped with a better set of hardware and features and it will be available for students at engineering universities and colleges.

new delhi President Pranab launches low cost Aakash 2 tablet

The advanced version of low cost tablet Aakash was launched in New Delhi on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Coming at a price tag of Rs. 1,130 for students, the new version Aakash 2, which will be made available to students of engineering colleges and universities to begin with, 
is now powered by a processor running at 1 GHz, has a 512 MB, a 7 inch capacitative touch screen and a battery working for three hours of normal operations.

Aakash loses government edge

DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing low-costAakash tablet, may run out of favour from the Indian governmentbecause it had violated the contract condition of providing the tablets first to the government before selling it in open market.

HRD ministry official have been quoted as saying by a news daily that government may not procure more than initial quota of one lakh tablets from DataWind as they started the online booking of Aakash tablet before supplying it to the government.

The Mobile Indian had reported this discrepancy regarding the delivery of Aakash tablet to government in December when DataWind started the online booking for the world's cheapest tablet.

Aakash tablet has been criticised for its poor battery life, poor processor that is unable to do multi-tasking and below par display quality.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is now thinking to bring a better low cost tablet which will address the drawback of the original Aakash tablet.

India’s Android Tablet Aakash – Review

The much awaited India’s ultra low cost Aakash tablet is finally launched. In association with Ministry of Information & Technology (India), Datawind launches Ubislate 7 in India as Aakash. Aakash Tablet is set to bridge the big India DIGITAL DIVIDE. Its main objective is to provide students of India, especially in its countryside, a cheap alternative to PC. Through Aakash tablet, students in India would have access to good quality study content like video lectures, e-books etc.

Aakash tablet offers a web delivery platform that enables quality and interactive knowledge over the internet. The tablet is a computing device that is low in cost but rich in features. The tablet is also integrated with social networking applications like facebook, twitter and with email.

Here we look at its features:

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.