[Marketing] Competitive Landscape??? Government of India launches the elusive $35 tablet, retail availability in November

[Ron Feigenblatt]

Hello,

On 10/5/11, Christoph Derndorfer <e0425826 at student.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/india/government-of-india-launches-the-elusive-35-tablet-retail-availability-in-november/716
> I'm honestly still not sure what to make of it but it's certainly
> disappointing that the battery life is said to be "up to 3 hours"... :-(

I've updated a section titled "Selected educational computing news" at
the bottom of a Web page I maintain at:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gahchs/schools/SandersMA/K-6computing.htm
where I started exhibiting news of the "Aakash" (then the "Sakshat")
during the summer.

It now includes two videos. The first, airing summer 2010, featured
India's HRD Minister Kapil Sibal showing a working prototype and
discussing collaboration possibilities. The second, newly issued,
describes the unit shipping now. There is also a link to the Wikipedia
article for the device.

The Wikipedia article in turn links to other sites, e.g.
http://www.akashtablet.com/ (which seems to be an ordering site, but
whose subdomain is owned by Domains by Proxy, Inc. in Arizona, USA.) A
page on Accessories at http://www.akashtablet.com/accessories.html
offers the chance to transform the device into a laptop, by use of a
keyboard case.

I think the important thing to remember is that the Aakash hardware
and software is aimed at a DIFFERENT audience than the OLPC hardware
and Sugar software. The Aakash is made to serve university, not
primary school, students. One need not be obsessed, either with
ruggedizing the Aakash against a severe environment and clumsy young
hands, or simplifying its operation.

Ron Feigenblatt