India launches £22 tablet PC, British made

[Larry-G]

India's already home to the world's cheapest car, the £1,298 Tata Motors Nano, and now it's home to the world's cheapest tablet too. Made by DataWind, a British company also responsible for the Pocketsurfer 2, the Aakash ("sky" in Hindi) will sell for just £22 to students, or £39 to regular citizens. Student discount, eh?

Reuters reports the tablet, launched today, aims to end the digital divide. It's not going to challenge the iPad 2 for performance, but it will bring tablet computers into the hands of some of the world's poorest people.

Aakash is about the size of a paperback, takes SD cards, and features a touchscreen, complete with video conferencing, two USB ports and a three-hour battery life. The touchscreen is resistive rather than capacitive, so gesture controls won't work, and it packs wi-fi too. Future versions will have mobile connections for use in more rural areas.

It runs Android 2.2, and packs a 600MHz processor. So it's not likely to amaze you with its speed, but at this price who's complaining?

An initial run of 100,000 will be given free to students, then it'll go on sale for about £39 for those not lucky enough to have the student discount.

DataWind tested the device by running video in sweltering heat of 48 degrees Celsius, to mimic an Indian summer. The device was in development for two years. It's aimed at the vast majority of India's 1.2 billion population for whom the iPad 2 is out of their price range, as well as university students looking to take advantage of its government-sponsored digital book distribution. Though DataWind may be slightly annoyed at Amazon for launching the budget Kindle Fire recently.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/india-launches-22-tablet-pc-british-made-50005519/