The Cheapest Tablet Aakash Bags 300,000 Pre-launch Orders

The commercial version of Aakash, the cheapest tablet PC in the world at Rs.3000/- (US$ 60 approx) which is going to be launched in December, has received nearly 300,000 pre-launch orders.

A subsidised version made by Datawind of UK is already being supplied free to schools and colleges. Datawind has supplied about 10,000 tablets to the National Mission for Education at Rs. 2,250 per piece. These are being used by students of the IITs, RECs, BITS, Teri University etc.

The bookings for Aakash far exceed the estimated demand of 250,000 tablet PCs in India. So far, the market has been dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung.

The next version of Aakash is going to sport a capacitative touch screen; the processor is also expected to be one running twice as fast as the one in the present model.

Plans are afoot to supply a keyboard that can be connected to the Tablet; the keyboard is expected to cost Rs.400.