India’s launched ultra-low-cost tablet, Aakash or “sky” in Hindi in New Delhi. As 1.2 billion people of india’s population are poor and products such as Apple ipad are beyond the reach so this will create much hype in India.The government is buying the first units of the light weight device for Rs 2250 each from a British company.
“The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide,” Telecoms and Education Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Android 2.2 is the operating system used in it with a resolution of 800×480. With 350 gms, it is the lightest tablet to carry. It has 2 USB ports, 256 MB of RAM with expandable memory upto 32 GB and 3.5mm headphone jack. It supports video conferencing with a three-hour battery life. The tablet comes with a 12-month replacement warranty and supports formats like DOC, DOCX, PDF and PPTX etc with some pre-loaded applications.
The cost would be droped once its demand in the market increases as reported by the DataWind, the British-based company that developed the tablet. The tablet will be commercially available from November for Rs 2999. It is getting mixed responses from middle-class people. Students are saying that it is slow and needs refinement but from the point view of price it’s okay. Its a good option for the poor.
Some 19 million people subscribe to mobile phones every month, making India the world’s fastest growing market, but most are from the wealthier segment of the population in towns.
India lags behind Brazil, Russia and China in the drive to get its 1.2 billion population connected to technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones, according to a report by risk analysis firm Maplecroft. The number of Internet users grew 15-fold between 2000 and 2010, according to another recent report. Still, just 8 per cent of Indians have access. That compares with nearly 40 per cent in China. India is the world’s fastest growing market with approximately 19 million people subscibe to mobile phones every month.