When the tech world first got word of the $35 tablet, no one really believed it could possibly be real.
The $35 tablet – which was first announced in a world of $500+ iPads- was met with derision and disbelief, and after several delays, people were even less likely to believe the cheap device could ever hit market with current component prices. Conceived as a tool for impoverished kids in India, the tablet was said back in the summer to boast “Google Android, 2GB RAM, a front-facing camera, 32GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, USB ports and various apps” and has not specifically been announced as lacking any of those features.
500 Students in India have been given the Aakash tablets (Aakash means sky) and DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli, head of the company that brought the tablets to market, said:
“Our goal was to break the price barrier for computing and internet access… We’ve created a product that will finally bring affordable computing and internet access to the masses.”
A commercial version of the tablet called UbiSlate will be introduced later this year, retailing at about $60. At the $35 tablet launch in the Indian capital of Delhi on October 5th, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government planned to purchase 100,000 of the tablets. In coming years, there is a goal of distributing 10 million tablets to students in India.
Sibal said:
“The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide.”
Naysayers say that cheap tablets are “ painfully slow .”
