India has unwrapped “world’s cheapest” tablet computer for $35 today. The government named the device as Aakash and said it would sale the product in the country from December.
However, Aakash, an Indian word for sky, will primarily be available in a pilot run of 100,000 units before being rolled out to millions of school going students over the next few months, said the government officials.
The Education and Telecoms minister Kapil Sibal said last week that “Soon, a $35 computer will be made available to every child in school. The tablet shall help enhance the quality of learning of children,”
The product is a collaboration between IIT Rajasthan and the Indian government. It is manufactured by Datawind, a UK-based company, commonly known as the maker of Pocketsurfer.
Like the Kindle Fire, the device uses the Google Android operating system. Although total stipulations of the Aakash were not available pre-launch, experts think low-end devices often use resistive LCD displays rather than full touch screens.
Rajat Agrawal, executive editor at technology reviewers BGR India said, “The thing with cheap tablets is most of them turn out to be unusable.”
“They don’t have a very good touch screen, and they are usually very slow,” he added.
