印度隆重推出35美元平板电脑!NEW DELHI - India launched what it dubbed the world's cheapest tablet computer onWednesday, to be sold to students at the subsidised price of $35 and later in shops for about$60.
Most of India's 1.2 billion people are poor and products such as Apple Inc's iPad are beyond thereach even of many in the fast-growing middle class.
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| Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, the small British-based company that developed Aakash, displays the "world's cheapest" tablet during its launch ceremony in New Delhi October 5, 2011. Aakash will be sold to students at the subsidised price of $35 to expand digital access in the Asian giant that lags peers such as China and Brazil in connectivity. |
"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakashwill end that digital divide," Telecoms and Education Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The government is buying the first units of the lightweight touch-screen device, called Aakash,or "sky" in Hindi, for $50 each from a British company which is assembling the web-enableddevices in India.
A pilot run of 100,000 units will be given to students for free, with the first 500 handed out at thelaunch to a mixed response. It supports video conferencing, has two USB ports and a three-hourbattery life but some users said it was slow.
India has a reputation for creating affordable products that are easy to use and sturdy enoughto handle its rugged environment -- from Tata Motors' $2,000 Nano car to generic versions ofpharmaceuticals.
Two years in development, the paperback book-sized Aakash may help the government's goalof incorporating information technology in education, although critics were doubtful of its massappeal.
Despite being a leader in software and IT services, India trails fellow BRIC nations Brazil, Russiaand China in the drive to get the masses connected to the Internet and mobile phones, a reportby risk analysis firm Maplecroft said this year.
The number of Internet users grew 15-fold between 2000 and 2010 in India, according toanother recent report. Still, just 8 percent of Indians have access. That compares with nearly 40percent in China.
The Aakash is aimed at university students for digital learning via a government platform thatdistributes electronic books and courses.
Testing included running video for two hours in temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius (118degrees Fahrenheit) to mimic a northern Indian summer, said DataWind, the small London-based company that developed the tablet with the Indian Institute of Technology.
Rajat Agrawal, executive editor of gadget reviewers BGR India, said the 660 mhz processor fromUS company Conexant Systems was "decent" for the price, but warned the machine seemedslow and the touch screen not very agile.
"Because of the price there is a lot of excitement," he said. "People might use it initially but if it isnot user friendly they will give up within a week."
After first giving them out for free, the government aims to sell them to students for $35 nextyear. A retail version will be sold in Indian shops for about $60.
The device uses resistive LCD displays rather than a full touch screen and connects via wirelessbroadband. DataWind CEO Suneet Singh said future versions would include a mobile phoneconnection, making it more useful in rural areas.
The launch last week of Amazon's Kindle Fire shook up the global tablet market, with its $199price tag and slick browser a serious threat to Apple's iPad.
Like the Kindle Fire, the Aakash uses the Google Android operating system.
Some of the mainly middle-class technology department students at the event said it neededrefinement but was a good option for the poor.
"It could be better," said Nikant Vohra, an electrical engineering student. "If you see it from theprice only, it's okay, but we have laptops and have used iPads, so we know the difference."
Some 19 million people subscribe to mobile phones every month, making India the world'sfastest growing market, but most are from the wealthier segment of the population in towns.
