AAKASH tablet, previously known as the Sakshat Tablet was officially launched yesterday, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, by the Minister of Human Resource and Development, Mr. Kapil Sibbal. With an audience comprising of 500 odd students from all across the country, institutions ranging from the NITs to the IIITs, trainers from IIT Rajasthan, who had a major contribution in the making of the device, entire media and many other dignitaries, the event was huge not only within the country but globally as well.
This is what the brochure by DATAWIND , the company behind this epic launch, says.
Gandhi Ji’s dream was of self-sustenance through education. We want to fulfill that by enabling every student in India with his own personal computing/internet device.
Aakash is a “low cost fast access cum computing device” more commonly known as a Tablet PC and has been developed as part of the National Mission On Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
History
A little history about the making:
More than a year back, Kapil Sibbal first announced about the launch of tablet computer which would come out at a price of mere $35 for Indian Students. The media and the tech world alike were sceptic about the practicality of such a project, especially when the range of iPads and other available tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab hovered somewhere around $600 and $500 respectively!
India today has successfully achieved the status of developing the World’s Cheapest Tablet PC with the launch of Aakash yesterday. I personally had a prolonged chat with Mr Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind who was excited about the launch and talked in-depth about the plans he has in mind, about further optimizing the Tab in terms of price and features.
Development Process
Word is that the concept was born in the mind of an IIT student (unnamed as yet) who had the initial idea about the design of a motherboard which could be used for the construction of an ultra low-cost product like this. The idea was embraced and worked upon in collaboration with IIT Rajasthan, under whom the entire project materialised and of course Datawind, who ultimately manufactured the product. The components have been imported from all across the world, majority being from Korea but the assembling, populating the board and the entire construction process has been done in India. And that’s the reason the boxes proudly claim “Made in India”.
Here are some notes from the launch:
- This launch is actually a trial phase: Only 500 odd tablets were distributed to students for testing, evaluating and reviewing for use of nearly 30-40 days. Once the trial period is over, the tablet will be available in the Market commercially (proposed in December).
- It’s not an iPad. People should not compare it with the iPad, neither should we expect a device which could eradicate illiteracy in India. The Tablet has been designed for the students of rural India, keeping in mind almost no-access to computers. But the mission has not yet been accomplished. The challenges after a successful trial period are huge. One of them is the distribution of the tab
- The price is Rs 2,276 currently. It’s $ 49.98/unit and not $35 as proposed initially but Mr Tuli assured that the aim is to further reduce it down to what they actually planned to achieve. Students would be offered the Tablet at a 50% discount for 1100 Rs. Though nothing can be called as certain for now.
Luckily, we got hold of an Aakash tablet and so have tried coming up with an honest product review.
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