India's economic growth may be slow but the demand for Aakash tablet, the world's cheapest tablet produced by DataWind, is incredible. The bookings of the tablet, which costs only Rs.2500, have touched 14 lakhs in just two weeks after it was put up for sale online.
DataWind, which has only one factory in Hyderabad, is planning to start three new factories in Cochin, Noida and Hyderabad in the first half of 2012 to meet the demands of the public.
"We never expected such a high response from both corporate and individual buyers. We plan to supply 70,000-75,000 units per day once the factories are in place by April," Economic Times quoted Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli as saying. "Around two weeks ago, we received a call from India's computer emergency response team that our website was probably suffering from a large cyber attack. We had to inform them we had just opened sale through our website," he added.
The student version of Aakash tablet costing Rs.2500 was recently opened for online booking. Pre-booking for its commercial version, UbiSlate 7, is also being opened. UbiSlate 7 will be priced at Rs 2999 and it is expected to hit the stores by the end of January.
"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," the Telecom and Education Minister Kapil Sibbal said at the launch of Aakash.
Aakash tablet has 366 Mhz microprocessor while its upgraded version UbiSlate 7 is powered by 700 Mhz processor. The former is equipped with Android 2.2 while that of UbiSlate 7 is Android 2.3.
