It looks like the wait will finally end today. India is all set to officially announce its affordable, uber cheap $35 (Rs. 1750) tablet later today when Kapil Sibal, the Telecoms and Education Minister will reveal the product. The product which carried the name Sakshat back in the heydays of its existence has been renamed “Aakash”.
According to Reuters, the Government has an initial production run of 100,000 tablets before they make it in the millions. The tablet will roughly cost $35 in India which of course is the Government subsidized price tag. The device is expected to run Android.
Also to be noted is the fact that this one surely doesn’t aspire to be your iPad or Kindle Fire killer. Thanks to the price tag, it is expected that the product would not offer a great experience and would in most probability come with a resistive display which will definitely affect usability. But then, if you are a poor student whose only objective would be to access never before seen multimedia and educational content on an electronic display, the Aakash will surely blow you away.Note that this is intended for people who do not even have access to a PC and for them; this is definitely something very cool.
We would be tracking the launch of the Aakash closely and will post updates once the launch happens in the next few hours. We seriously hope it doesn’t turn out to be a damp squib.
