Aakash Tablet – World’s Cheapest Tab

After a huge success of the world’s cheapest car manufactured by India, the country is all set to step into the tech-world with the same strategy of offering good quality product at the best possible price. After a wait of about one year since a prototype was shown to the reporters, the Indian officials have finally launched the world’s cheapest tablet i.e. Aakash Tablet (also known as Akash Tab or $35 Tablet) is available at a price of just $60 (Rs 3000) in retail stores and probably much cheaper for students. The commercial version of Aakash Tablet is Ubislate which will be available from November with a few more features than the Government’s version.

The makers of Akash Tab are IIT Rajasthan in partnership with DataWind, a leading manufacturer of wireless web access products and services which is based in Montreal and is owned by Suneet Singh Tuli who is a Canadian of Indian descent. 

Features and Specifications of Aakash Tablet

 

Display  :- Aakash Tablet has a 7 inch resistive touch screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution.

Operating System :- Akash Tab runs Android 2.2 (Froyo).

Processor :- It has got a single core 366 MHz processor plus a HD video co-processor, 256 MB RAM and 2GB internal flash memory.

Supported Multimedia Formats :- Aakash Tablet supports Image formats like .png, .jpg, .gif, .bmp. Supported Video Formats include MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI and FLV. The Tablet also supports audio formats such as MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV and WMA.

External Connectors :- Aakash Tablet supports Mini and Full USB, has got two SD card slots (memory expandable up-to 32GB), a SIM card slot, Video Out, a 3.5 mm headphone jack support and HDMI port.

Internet Connectivity :- Aakash is a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g enabled Tablet with a Web Browser having Standards Compliance, xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant and safety compliance. It also offers separate software for online YouTube videos.

App Store :- Akash Tab supports more than 150000 apps to keep you entertained throughout the day.

Battery :- The 50 gram Tablet has a 2100mAh battery with a standby time of 3-4 hours.

Supported Document Formats- The supported document formats include DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT and ODP. The Tablet has also got PDF Viewer and Text Editor.

Aakash in Hindi Language means ‘Sky’ and probably the device is ready to reach the same height. The main target of this tablet is students who always admired Tablets but had to murder their feelings due to lack of money. Aakash has all the basic features which are frequently used by everyone and can be easily bought by the students just by saving their pocket money for a few days. Though it is disappointing that the Tablet does not have a camera and will not have access to Android Market, we cannot expect so much at such a price. Overall the Tablet is a very good deal for everyone.

 

Aakash tablet goes on sale for Rs 2500 online

 

DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, has started the online booking and pre booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. Online booking is for students' version of the tablet and pre booking is for UbiSlate 7, the upgraded version of Aakash.
Students' version of Aakash will be available for Rs 2,500 and will be delivered in seven days. The commercial version, UbiSlate 7 is priced at Rs 2,999. The payment mode for both the tablets is cash on delivery.
The commercial version of Aakash tablet will be powered by Android 2.3 and will have a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory.
Other specifications are a one standard USB port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 7 inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, resistive touchscreen, GPRS and WiFi support.
"The improved version of Aakash tablet will be available in retail outlets by January end," a spokesperson of DataWind told The Mobile Indian.
The tablet was to be made available in retail stores by the end of November. "The delay in the availability of the tablet has been due to upgradation in the tablet and some unforeseen delay in manufacturing," the spokesperson said.
To book and prebook student and commercial versions respectively of Aakash tablet, users have to visit DataWind's website and fill up the required form. In case of booking they will get a booking ID and a message which will state, "You will shortly receive an email confirmation from our support team with further details."
In case of pre booking users will get a confirmation message which will state, "The commercial version of the Akash UbiSlate 7 would be launched in early weeks of December. After the commercial launch we would get in touch with you to deliver your device as soon possible."
As a matter of fact, the confirmation message a reader will see is factually incorrect as The mobile Indian had reported earlier the Aakash tablet will be available only by January end.
Datawind has however not cleared how it is going to establish the identity of students who will book the cheapest version of Aakash tablet. When The Mobile Indian contacted spokesperson of Datwind he said, "Anyone can book the student version of Aakash tablet."
This defeats the purpose of providing students an affordable tablet as now anyone can place an order to get the tablet. Interestingly, now it has been revealed that the government has procured only 10,000 Aakash tablets for distribution in schools and colleges of the initial 1 lakh proposed.
It looks like the company was in a hurry to start the online booking process and has not done not proper homework before staring it.

 

http://www.akashtablet.com/