NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday launched its long-awaited “computer for the masses”, unveiling a $46 tablet device designed to bring the information technology revolution to tens of millions of students.
DataWind, the Canada-based manufacturer, said the government was buying 100,000 of the tablets at 2,276 rupees ($46) each to be given away for free to university and college students.
The price of what has been dubbed “the world’s cheapest computer” should fall to $35 and could even be hammered down as low as $10, DataWind said at the launch in New Delhi.
The computer has a seven-inch (18-centimetre) touchscreen, Wi-Fi Internet function, a multimedia player and 180 minutes of battery power.
Called the “Aakash” (“Sky”), the stylish, locally-made device uses an Android 2.2 operating system and has an external 2GB storage card and two USB ports. “Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and Internet access,” DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said. “We’ve created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and Internet access to the masses.”
“It ($35) is a viable number, on our way to $10 also. Maybe not today but in time. That’s the goal,” he added. The release of the Aakash has been hailed a major success for India, which is also famous for the Tata Nano — the world’s cheapest car, priced at about $2,500.
But experts warned the tablet device might struggle to live up to expectations with its limited 256-megabyte random access memory (RAM).
The computers will at first be distributed through universities and colleges rather than sold at shops, and the long-term marketing strategy remains unclear. Commercial manufacturers are hoping Indian customers will leapfrog personal computers to buy tablets, as millions did by buying mobile telephones instead of waiting for a landline.