Develop apps for Aakash, get rewarded

The world's cheapest tablet is on way to become a potential money spinner for students and social networking startups. Datawind, the maker of Aakash, a low-cost tablet, has announced a contest for students wherein their best applications will be embedded in the Ubislate - the commercial version of the $35 tablet likely to be launched next year.

"We hope to create an entrepreneurial culture among the student community. Students think unconventionally unlike large corporates or software development firms. If they design an useful application which is selected, it would be pre-burned in millions of tablets to be shipped out by us," said Suneet Singh Tuli, chief executive of Datawind said at the IIM Lucknow's Entrepreneurial Summit.

About three lakh pre-sales booking have been received for Ubislate, expected to be priced at Rs 3,000 at retail stores. The Ubislate is expected to be bundled with a Rs 99 data plan for internet access.

Tuli added that while it could be a money-spinner for a student who will get a royalty from the usage of application on the tablet, they would also gain by offering a useful application to their users. About Rs 1 lakh each will be awarded to five students who come up with a winning application for the world's cheapest tablet, which runs on Google's Android operating system, version 2.2.

Social sector organisations also stand to gain from the low-cost tablet. India's software lobby, Nasscom, also announced a partnership with Datawind Monday whereby it will distribute 200 tablets to non-government organisations (NGOs).

To boot, Nasscom Foundation has partnered with Datawind and announced a contest wherein 10 NGOs will have an opportunity to win 20 tablets each, mainly to improve their operations and programme implementation.

To win these tablets, the social organisations will have to showcase how best they can leverage Aakash tablet for promoting education, health and livelihood.

Aakash tablet goes on sale for Rs 2500 online

DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, has started the online booking and pre booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. Online booking is for students' version of the tablet and pre booking is for UbiSlate 7, the upgraded version of Aakash.

Students' version of Aakash will be available for Rs 2,500 and will be delivered in seven days. The commercial version, UbiSlate 7 is priced at Rs 2,999. The payment mode for both the tablets is cash on delivery.

The commercial version of Aakash tablet will be powered by Android 2.3 and will have a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory.

Other specifications are a one standard USB port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 7 inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, resistive touchscreen, GPRS and WiFi support.

"The improved version of Aakash tablet will be available in retail outlets by January end," a spokesperson of DataWind told The Mobile Indian.

The tablet was to be made available in retail stores by the end of November. "The delay in the availability of the tablet has been due to upgradation in the tablet and some unforeseen delay in manufacturing," the spokesperson said.

To book and prebook student and commercial versions respectively of Aakash tablet, users have to visit DataWind's website and fill up the required form. In case of booking they will get a booking ID and a message which will state, "You will shortly receive an email confirmation from our support team with further details."

In case of pre booking users will get a confirmation message which will state, "The commercial version of the Akash UbiSlate 7 would be launched in early weeks of December. After the commercial launch we would get in touch with you to deliver your device as soon possible."

As a matter of fact, the confirmation message a reader will see is factually incorrect as The mobile Indian had reported earlier the Aakash tablet will be available only by January end.

Datawind has however not cleared how it is going to establish the identity of students who will book the cheapest version of Aakash tablet. When The Mobile Indian contacted spokesperson of Datwind he said, "Anyone can book the student version of Aakash tablet."

This defeats the purpose of providing students an affordable tablet as now anyone can place an order to get the tablet. Interestingly, now it has been revealed that the government has procured only 10,000 Aakash tablets for distribution in schools and colleges of the initial 1 lakh proposed.

It looks like the company was in a hurry to start the online booking process and has not done not proper homework before staring it.

The original article was posted here