Early this month India launched touch-screen tablet PC, which is known as “Aakash”. That is priced at just $35 compared to its counterpart OLPC which was originally priced at $100 and then increased to $180 - $200 later. The Aakash has been developed by UK-based company DataWind and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT - Rajasthan).
Mr. Kapil Sibal, the minister of the Indian Human Resource Development Ministry hopes Aakash will give digital access to students in small towns and villages and end the digital divide in India.
But it is too early to say how the Aakash will be received as most cheap tablets in the past have turned out to be either poor performers or expensive eventually (what happened to OLPC). Any laptop should meet the demand of its target audience. Following table shows the comparison of Aakash and OLPC;
But it is too early to say how the Aakash will be received as most cheap tablets in the past have turned out to be either poor performers or expensive eventually (what happened to OLPC). Any laptop should meet the demand of its target audience. Following table shows the comparison of Aakash and OLPC;
Consideration
|
Aakash Tablet PC
|
OLPC
|
Technical
| ||
Display
|
7” colour LCD/TFT
|
7.5” Dual-mode TFT
|
RAM
|
2GB
|
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM
|
Hard Drive
|
32GB
|
Internal 4GB microSD card
|
Connectivity
|
Wi-Fi,
USB 2.0 (2),
Ethernet port
|
Wireless networking interface
|
Operating System
|
Android
|
OS build on modified Fedora Linux kernel
|
Processor
|
Unknown
|
1 GHz
|
Other
| ||
Target Audience
|
Students of 504 Universities and 25,000 Colleges in India
|
Primary level kids (5 - 15 years) around the world
|
Unite Price
|
$35
|
$180
|
One which has balanced the price and the features to fulfill the needs and wants of its target audience would be the most successful and sustainable laptop in the world.
-Sameera
