10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
I am rather late in writing on the $35 tablet computer but that was a deliberate decision. I didn’t think there was anything positive to write about Aakash, claimed to be the “cheapest” touch-screen tablet PC in the world.
The Indian government, which commissioned the tablet’s development and manufacture, should have learnt from the performance of the world’s cheapest car – Tata’s Nano – that nobody wants. But, then, we expect too much from our elected leaders. As Apple’s Steve Jobs may have said, Aakash may simply be DOA – dead on arrival and here’s why.
#1. Aakash is not the cheapest tablet PC in the world. As Digit magazine points out, several nondescript manufacturers in Taiwan and China are selling tablets that are just as cheap, given the higher specifications of these models. For example, one with a faster processor than Aakash and a webcam sells for $39.71, which is cheaper even than the proposed price for the commercial version of Aakash, called UbiSlate.
#2. Aakash is a Wi-Fi-only version, meaning only those at the elite educational institutions can use it. It should be obvious that students at institutions that have on-campus Wi-Fi don’t need a discount store product with sub-standard features.
#3. With a resistive touch screen, it would need a miracle for somebody to use it for any form of writing, even e-mail, especially with the lag likely from the slow 366 MHz processor. Consequently, the device could at best function as a browsing device.
#4. Aakash’s claimed battery life of three hours is a stretch, given it may have been achieved under unspecified test conditions. If manufacturers’ routine claims and lab tests are anything to go by, users will be lucky to get half that time, which would mean a mere 90 minutes.
#5. Just like the Nano failed because people count the costs of running a car, not just its cost, Aakash’s success will depend on how many can also afford the cost of Wi-Fi Internet service. DataWind, Aakash’s manufacturer, is offering unlimited mobile Internet service for a monthly fee of a mere $2 (Rs. 98) but only on its commercial version, not the subsidized version being sold to the government for distribution to students at unspecified educational institutions.
#6. DataWind, a firm with operations in the U.K., Canada and Australia, has previously only made wireless Internet access products. The firm was founded by and run by the brothers Raja Singh Tuli and Suneet Singh Tuli.
#7. Aakash has received a surprisingly fair review but that in itself hides a story. Few reviewers have had a good look at it, and nobody as far as I can tell has had a hands-on test of the tablet. Even Apple, when it released the first version of its iPad, gave the device to reputed reviewers such as Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal for an independent review. Digit, one of the leading computer magazines, had not got a unit for its review and only said this: “We hope to get our hands on the $35 gadget soon, we will reserve our final verdict for the detailed review.” Good luck, guys.
#8. For those touting Aakash as a means to better quality of education, here’s a thought even if it is a comment on school education. Mint columnist Anurag Behar, who oversees Azim Premji’s education program, wrote thus: “Across two continents, they (school officials) said the same thing – “not a dollar will we invest in ICT, every dollar that we have will go to teacher and school leader capacity building. Like us, through experience, they have learnt the limits of ICT.” You can read his full column here.
#9. For those who consider Aakash as a means to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India, it should be obvious that college students are, by no stretch of imagination, the demographic that is most disenfranchised.
#10. Finally, even the Tamil Nadu government, which plans to hand out 6.8 million free laptops to poor school and college students in the state, is giving out computers with far superior specifications and features. It will be spending an estimated $1.5 billion, not a measly $5 million that the federal government is spending on the initial order of 100,000 tablets.
For the sake of the country, I hope Aakash will not go the way of the Nano, but am hard-pressed to understand how it can avoid the fate of the cheap car that even the poor don’t want.
10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
We've all seen this before. The Indian public gets excited easily and politicians exploit this tendency with shitty projects with no substance. Make it sound like something revolutionary that will propel India to the very top etc etc. Does everyone remember the how nutty they got over the anti-corruption movement Team Anna? Well try a google search now and you're see that it fizzled to nothing, and everyone is onto the next great delusion.
10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
We've heard of white elephant projects, this is a white mice project.
10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
The number 1 reason "India's $35 table" will fail is because it does not exist. The tablet is Taiwanese designed AND made. India just slaps its sticker on it and claims it as "indigenous".
10 reasons India’s $35 tablet is destined for failure
I will not be surprise at all if this so-called India made world cheapest tablet turn out to be another hoax after the $10 world cheapest computer claim. What bothering me is that Indians bashing, labeling China for making cheap products and they themselves taking pride of producing this and that so-called world cheapest car, computer now "world cheapest tablet" textbook example of hyprocrite to the core.
India's Aakash Tablet 'Made in China'
India's Aakash Tablet 'Made in China'
From R. Vasudevan—Reporting from New Delhi
New Delhi, 25 November (Asian tribune.com):
Doubts have arisen whether India’s tech-showpiece Aakash 2, the world's cheapest tablet, was actually made in China?
Union Minister Kapil Sibal had tom-tommed the achievement which was meant to help students who cannot afford expensivePCs or Laptops.
Documents reviewed by the Hindustan Times show DataWind founders and NRI brothers Suneet and Raja Singh Tuli may have procured these devices off-the-shelf from manufacturers in China for $42 ( Rs. 2,263 then), exactly the price at which they sold these to the Indian government.
DataWind bought more than 10,000 or more "A 13" made-in-China tablets from at least four manufacturers in Shenzhen and Hong Kong between October 26 and November 7.
These were shipped to India duty-free as they were meant for school students under an HRD ministry programme. Last year, Canada-based DataWind won a bid to supply 100,000 low-cost computing devices to students. Aakash 2, which is meant to be India-made, is part of that agreement.
DataWind had no role either in the design or manufacturing of Aakash 2 tablets, a source said.
Documents with HT show that DataWind bought the tablets from at least four manufacturers, Dasen International Electronics, Shenzhen Shitong Zhaoli Technology, Kalong Technology and Trend Grace Ltd.
DataWind's manufacturing partner in Hyderabad --- VMC Systems---had not built any device over the last couple of months, said a source. Its manufacturing partners and facilities in Delhi and Amritsar, respectively, too, had not produced even a single tablet over the last couple of months, the source said.
“Instead of manufacturing these low-cost tablets themselves… DataWind has simply purchased these 'off-the-shelf' from China and supplied it to the Indian government,” the source told HT.
It now appears that Datawind handed over the China-made tablets to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay for testing. IIT-B's role is limited to testing and installing apps. These, it emerges, were subsequently unveiled as Aakash 2 on November 11.
India's Aakash Tablet 'Made in China'
DataWind bought more than 10,000 or more "A 13" made-in-China tablets from at least four manufacturers in Shenzhen and Hong Kong between October 26 and November 7.
Price of Aakash tablet to come down to $35 soon: Sibal | NDTV Gadgets
Price of Aakash tablet to come down to $35 soon: Sibal
Press Trust of India, December 12, 2012
Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said the price of Aakash
tablet will soon come down to $35 (about Rs. 1,900 approximately) from
$49 at present.
"Aakash is a tablet which at the moment costs $49. It will come down to $35 very soon. It has all the amenities of
any modern tablet," Sibal said at Reverse Buyer Seller Meet (RBSM) New Delhi
organised by Telecom Equipment and Service Export Promotion Council.
The
Minister added that next version of the tablet will also have Skype, an
application used for making voice calls using Internet connection and
does not necessarily require a SIM.
"It performs the same function
as a $150 tablet," Sibal said, adding that Aakash is kind of product
that two- third population of world needs as they don't have enough
resources to buy tablet costing $150.
Explaining on the way
price of Aakash tablet drops, the Minister said "The capacitative
(touch) screen is imported at a cost of $22 or around $20. The
manufacturing cost is $2. If you were to set up that manufacturing
unit in India, the cost will come down automatically from $49 to $29."
He said that government is in process to get Cabinet approval
for manufacturing of 50 lakh units of Aakash tablet in India and then
float a global tender for its production in the country.
He said the production of Aakash tablet in large volumes will further drive down the cost.
In
the last tender, each unit of Aakash tablet costed government Rs. 2,263
and it announced 50 percent subsidy on the tablet for students which
finally costs Rs. 1,130.
The Minister said if Indian industry is
able to provide a quality solution for citizen of the country then such
solution or product will work anywhere in the world.
"In fact it
will be game changer for the world consumer in Europe, consumer in
Japan, consumer in the United States of America would be looking for
those solution because he will be getting the same solution at a much
lower cost and a very high quality solution," Sibal said.
The
Minister said government is giving enormous emphasis to research and
development (R&D) for manufacturing of electronics product in the
country that are of high quality and reasonably priced.
"We are
going to create an R&D fund in which the government will contribute.
We are setting up fab so that (electronic) chip manufacturing can be
done India," he said.
Datawind rubbishes claim that Aakash 2 is 'Made in China'
Datawind, the makers of the low-cost Aakash 2, has refuted claims made by a media report that the tablet is a cheap Chinese import and not Indian. A report carried by Hindustan Times had alleged that Datawind founders and NRI brothers Suneet and Raja Singh Tuli ‘may have procured these devices off-the-shelf from manufacturers in China' for $42 (Rs 2,263 then), exactly the price at which they sold these to the Indian government.
Aakash 2: Indian or Chinese?
The major difference between Aakash 1 and 2 is the latter’s capacitive touchscreen that Tuli reveals has been manufactured in the company’s Montreal facility and assembled in China. Datawind is setting up its second touchscreen facility in India, which it hopes will be up and running by another month.
Aakash 1 was built by Datawind with IIT-Rajasthan overlooking the production. The MHRD slapped a showcause notice to the institute over its failure to set up a timely tablet testing facility and procedure, along with the institute's failure to ease differences with Datawind. Cracks had appeared between the two over production values in the beginning itself with IIT-R seeking military-style specifications, like water-resistance, shock-resistance etc. Datawind stood its ground on making the Aakash tablet an affordable tablet with the basic specifications. |
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