Though the device had to leave some feathers on its way according to the price and specs, it is finally there. The Aakash (translates to Sky) of manufacturer Datawind will be sold with a $50 USD price tag but the government is going to subsidise 50% of the price for schools that want to invest in the tablet. One reason for the higher price of the Aakash is that the tablet is entirely build in India though parts like the touchscreen would have been available cheaper in China, for example.
The Indian government has already ordered 100k tablets, 10k have been delivered already and will go out to schools in the coming days. The aim is to deliver 10 million tablets to secondary schools throughout India.
According to NDTV Gadgets students will have access to the entire content of the NPTEL (National Programme of Technology Enabled Learning). All the video lectures along with animations, simulations, notes and tests are available for free.
The specs of the Aakash / Ubislate are as follows
- 366 MHz Processor
- Android 2.2
- 7 inch Touchscreen
- 32GB expandable Memory
- 256MB RAM
- 2 USB ports
- Wi-Fi
- Video conferencing capability
- Internal media player
- Battery life 1.5h to 3h
- 2GB SD memory card included
