The Aakash made national and international headlines when it launched on October 5th 2011. It is entirely assembled in India.Online booking of aakash tables had crossed 14 lakhs in 2 weeks. It’s pricier than the $35 tag originally announced, still the world's cheapest tablet.
The tablet itself is sold out but you can pre-book the Ubislate 7, a slightly upgraded version of the Aakash for Rs.2999. The Ubislate 7 is sold out for the month of January and Febuary 2012 but you can preorder for March onwards.
Pre-sales bookings for the Aakash tablet (about 400,000 in October) had surpassed the Indian tablet market which grossed about 250,000-300,000 tablets till last year.
Even with a mild touch and slow processor, Aakash has received about 1 lakh orders a day since online launch last month. In comparison, Apple sold about 10 lakh iPads in 28 days and 30 lakh in 80 days of its launch in April 2010. Currently, the cheapest model of iPad at Rs 29,500, is about 12 times costlier than Aakash which maker
Datawind is, however, strangulated with supply constraints, compared to Apple which managed smooth deliveries of the iPad. Datawind plans to put on sale online the next version of Aakash - Ubislate 7, priced at Rs 2999, by mid-January. The newer version will come with a slot for insertion of a SIM card, for access of internet by GPRS or 2G connection. The current version of the tablet can access internet via WiFi access.
Besides, the newer version will be twice as fast with a 700 Mhz processor compared to a 366 Mhz processor in the current tablet. In another development, the government has extended the letter of credit to Datawind to supply the next lot of 90,000 tablets, even though IIT Rajasthan is yet to provide the test specifications for the next version, which it wants to procure for supply to students. The delay from the government's end is likely to land Aakash in the hands of commercial buyers before students for whom the low-cost tablet was meant for in the first place.
The newer version will come with a slot for insertion of a SIM card, for accessing the Internet via GPRS or 2G connectivity. The current version of the tablet can access the Internet via Wi-Fi only.
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