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http://www.tigerstartups.com/blogs/249/indias-quest-for-worlds-cheapest-tablet-innovation-meets-bureaucracy
Indias Quest For Worlds Cheapest Tablet: Innovation
MeetsBureaucracy
Apr 11, 2012 by Vinod Janardhanan
When DataWind Ltd launched Aakash computers late last year in
association with the Indiangovernment, it was touted as the worlds
cheapest tablet that, at $35, would bring affordablecomputing to
the next 3 billion internet users.In a bold effort to bridge the
digital divide, the Indian government agreed to subsidize 50percent
of the commercial price of around $60, and procure the tablets for
educationalinstitutions. DataWind developed the tablet in
partnership with IIT Rajasthan, under IndianHuman Resources &
Development ministry's (MHRD) National Mission on Education
throughInformation & Communication Technology. (For the
uninitiated, IITs are the famed IndianInstitutes of Technology that
supply many bright minds to American IT giants.)
But months later, DataWind, led by Indian-origin brothers Suneet
and Raja Singh Tuli, isembroiled in a controversy over delays in
delivery. In a recent interview, Suneet said the delayswere caused
by IIT-Rajasthan to sabotage the project in order to favor other
firms.The problems faced by DataWind, who moved its headquarters
from Montreal, Canada toLondon, is a story of innovation meeting
bureaucracies of the developing world.India was expected to buy 8
million to 10 million pieces of Aakash tablet by March 31, the
closeof financial year for India. But differences about results of
testing parameters such as shock,water resistance, temperature,
dust and humidity meant that the number of products shippedwere
much lesser than originally planned.Now , to make amends for the
delays, DataWind is giving more than what the buyers bargainedfor,
by upgrading the products hardware and operating system to 4.0 Ice
Cream Sandwich,
Android OSs latest version. Besides a 7 inch touch screen,
Aakash 2 is expected to have800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB
of RAM and 2GB of storage. The company shiftedto IIT-Mumbai as new
collaborators.Meanwhile, enquiries about delayed deliveries have
been pouring in, obviously. Suneet haspersonally appealed for more
patience in the Aakash tablet website.With tens of thousands of
calls daily to our call-centre, we are unable to adequately respond
toall the queries we are receiving he said on the site and asked
customers to e-mail or fill a queryform while DataWind upgrades its
customer response system.
Aakash 2 tablet will ship in May with Android 2.3, but will be
upgradeable to Android 4.0 aboutsix to eight weeks after delivery,
Suneet was quoted as saying. "The product development iscomplete
and deliveries are expected to start in about two or three weeks,"
he added.It remains to be seen if all the hard work that DataWind
put in to realize the great dream ofbringing computing power to the
bottom billion will make money for the Indian-origin brothersand
their company. "We have not been paid for a single one of them. But
mission is moreimportant to us... we believe in Aakash project,"
says Suneet.
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Our original order for 100,000 units has been transferred for
Aakash 2 now. After the order of100,000 units is met, MHRD will
invite bids for more tablets. We will bid again," he added.On the
bright side, interest in the commercial version of Aakash called
Ubislate is growing inmany countries including in the USA.
According to some reports, Philadelphia, one of the states
facing digital divide, is in line to import some tablets for its
public school system.
