India’s Low-Cost Aakash Tablet Pre-Orders Hit 1.4 Million
Datawind the maker of the world's cheapest tablet - Aakash, may now not lose sleep, over its contract
with IIT Rajasthan falling into a jeopardy over tablet specifications, as it has procured retail orders
worth over Rs 700 crore, from the open commercial market.
These bulk bookings, Tuli, is looking to cash in, by raising funds from private equity investors for
his company. "Some investors have expressed interest. We are looking at a dilution of about 10%-15%
stake," he adds.
It’s being sold for Rs2500, which translates to just under $50. The government then subsidizes sales
to students, bringing the cost down to $35. But while the government originally suggested a million
devices would be on the ground before the end of 2011, the Indian manufacturer won’t be pushing out
devices at a decent rate until this coming April, and at that point the Aakash may find itself an
orphan device.
Besides, many colleges such as SDM College, Karnataka and countries such as Italian government have
asked Datawind, for orders ranging in thousands of tablets for their IT education projects, as per
sources.
"As of now Datawind has delivered around 30,000 tablets and the rest 70,000 will also have the
upgraded version of Aakash-II," he said.
The government did not issue a Letter of Credit to the company after receiving test reports from
IIT (Jodhpur) that raised certain issues with regard to the quality of the tablet PC.
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